HISTORY 


OF    THE 


American  Clock  Business 


FOE  THE  PAST  SIXTY  YEAES, 


AND 


Life  of  CHAUNCEY   JEEOME, 


WRITTEN  BY  HIMSELF. 


BARNUM'S    CONNECTION 


WITH  THE 


YANKEE   ^LOCK  BUSINESS. 


I860. 


HISTORY 


OF    THE 


American  Clock  Business 


FOE  THE  PAST  SIXTY  YEAES, 


AND 


Life  of  CHAUNCEY   JEKOME, 

WRITTEN  BY  HIMSELF. 

BARNUM'S    CONNECTION 

WITH  THE 

YANKEE  CLOCK  BUSINE8R 


I860. 


PREFACE. 


The  manufacture  of  Clocks  has  become  one  of  the  most  important 
branches  of  American  industry.  Its  productions  are  of  immense  value 
and  form  an  important  article  of  export  to  foreign  countries.  It  has 
grown  from  almost  nothing  to  its  present  dimensions  within  the  last 
thirty  years,  and  is  confined  to  one  of  the  smallest  States  in  the  Union. 
Sixty  years  ago,  a  few  men  with  clumsy  tools  supplied  the  demand;  at 
the  present  time,  with  systematized  labor  and  complicated  machinery,  it 
gives  employment  to  thousands  of  men,  occupying  some  of  the  largest 
factories  of  Xew  England.  Previous  to  the  year  1838,  most  clock  move 
ments  were  made  of  wood;  since  that  time  they  have  been  constructed  of 
metal,  which  is  not  only  better  and  more  durable  but  even  cheaper  to 
manufacture. 

Many  years  of  my  own  life  have  been  inseparably  connected  with  and 
devoted  to  the  American  clock  business,  and  the  most  important  changes 
in  it  have  taken  place  within  my  remembrance  and  actual  experience. 
Its  whole  history  is  familiar  to  me,  and  I  cannot  write  my  life  without 
having  much  to  say  about  "Yankee  clocks."  Neither  can  there  be  a 
history  of  that  business  written  without  alluding  to  myself. 

A  few  weeks  since  I  entered  my  sixty-seventh  year,  and  reviewing  the 
past,  many  trying  experiences  are  brought  fresh  into  my  mind.  For  more 
than  forty-five  years  I  have  been  actively  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of 
clocks,  and  constantly  studying  and  contriving  new  methods  of  manu 
facturing  for  the  benefit  of  myself  and  fellow-men,  and  although  through 
the  instrumentality  of  others,  I  have  been  unfortunate  in  the  loss  of  my 
good  name  and  an  independent  competency,  which  I  had  honorably  and 
honestly  acquired  by  these  long  years  of  patient  toil  and  industry,  it  is  a 
satisfaction  to  me  now  to  know  that  I  have  been  the  means  of  doing  some 
good  in  the  world. 

On  the  following  pages  in  my  simple  language,  and  in  a  bungling 
manner,  I  have  told  the  story  of  my  life.  I  am  no  author,  but  claim  a 
title  which  I  consider  nobler,  that  of  a  "Mechanic."  Being  possessed  of 
a  remarkable  memory,  I  am  able  to  give  a  minute  account  and  even  the 
date  of  every  important  transaction  of  my  whole  life,  and  distinctly 
remember  events  which  took  place  when  I  was  but  a  child,  three  and  a 
half  years  old,  and  how  I  celebrated  my  fourth  birthday.  I  could  relate 
many  instances  of  my  boyhood  and  later  day  experiences  if  my  health 
and  strength  would  permit.  It  has  been  no  part  of  my  plan  to  boast,  ex 
aggerate,  or  misrepresent  anything,  but  to  give  "plain  facts." 

A  history  of  the  great  business  of  Clock  making  has  never  been  written. 
I  am  the  oldest  man  living  who  has  had  much  to  do  with  it,  and  am  best 
able  to  give  its  history.  To-day  my  name  is  seen  on  millions  of  these 
useful  articles  in  every  part  of  the  civilized  globe,  the  result  of  early 
ambition  and  untiring  perseverance.  It  was  in  fact  the  "pride  of  my 
life."  Time-keepers  have  been  known  for  centuries  in  the  old  world;  but 
I  will  not  dwell  on  that.  It  is  enough  for  the  American  people  to  know 
that  their  country  supplies  the  whole  world  with  its  most  useful  time 
keepers,  (as  well  as  many  other  productions,)  and  that  no  other  country 
can  compete  with  ours  in  their  manufacture. 

It  has  been  a  long  and  laborious  undertaking  for  me  in  my  old  age  to  write  such  a 
work  as  this;  but  the  hope  that  it  might  be  useful  and  instructive  to  many  of  my  young 
friends  has  animated  me  to  go  on;  and  in  presenting  it  to  the  public  it  is  with  hope  that 
it  will  meet  with  some  favor,  and  that  I  shall  derive  some  pecuniar}-  benefit  therefrom. 

588 


AMERICAN  CLOCK  MAKING. 
LIFE  OF  CHAUNCEY  JEROME. 

CHAPTER     I. 

EARV    DAYS. LEAVING    HOME. BOUND   OUT. FARMING. CARPENTER. — 

SOLDIER.— CLOCK    MAKING. 

I  was  born  in  the  town  of  Canaan,  Litchfield  County,  in  the  State  of 
Connecticut,  on  the  10th  day  of  June,  1793.  My  parents  were  poor  but 
respectable  and  industrious.  My  father  was  a  blacksmith  and  wrought- 
nail  maker  by  trade,  and  the  lather  of  six  children  —  four  sons  and  two 
daughters.  I  was  the  fourth  child. 

In  January,  1797,  he  moved  from  Canaan  to  the  to\vn  of  Plymouth,  in 
the  same  County,  and  in  the  following  spring  built  a  blacksmith  shop, 
which  was  large  enough  for  three  or  four  men  to  work  at  the  nail  making 
business,  besides  carrying  on  the  blacksmithing.  At  that  time  all  the 
nails  used  in  the  country  were  hammered  by  hand  out  of  iron  rods,  which 
practice  has  almost  entirely  been  done  away  by  the  introduction  of  cut 
nails. 

My  advantages  for  education  were  very  poor.  When  large  enough  to 
handle  a  hoe,  or  a  bundle  of  rye,  I  was  kept  at  work  on  the  farm.  The 
only  opportunity  I  had  for  attending  school  was  in  the  winter  season,  and 
then  only  about  three  months  in  the  year,  and  at  a  very  poor  school. 
When  I  was  nine  years  old,  my  father  took  me  into  the  shop  to  work, 
where  I  soon  learned  to  make  nails,  and  worked  with  him  in  this  way 
until  his  death,  which  occurred  on  the  fifth  of  October,  1804.  For  two 
or  three  days  before  he  died,  he  suffered  the  most  excruciating  pains  from 
the  disease  known  as  the  black  colic.  The  day  of  his  death  was  a  sad  one 
to^me,  for  I  knew  that  I  should  lose  my  happy  home,  and  be  obliged  to 
leave  it  to  seek  work  for  my  support.  There  being  no  manufacturing  of 
any  account  in  the  country,  the  poor  boys  were  obliged  to  let  themselves 
to  the  farmers,  and  it  was  extremely  difficult  to  find  a  place  to  live  where 
they  would  treat  a  poor  boy  like  a  human  being.  Never  shall  I  forget  the 
Monday  morning  that  I  took  my  little  bundle  of  clothes,  and  with  a 
bursting  heart  bid  my  poor  mother  good  bye.  I  knew  that  the  rest  of 
the  family  had  got  to  leave  soon,  and  I  perhaps  never  to  see  any  of  them 
again.  Being  but  a  boy  and  naturally  very  sympathizing,  it  really  seemed 
as  if  my  heart  would  break  to  think  of  leaving  my  dear  old  home  for  good, 
but  stern  necessity  compelled  me,  and  I  was  forced  to  obey. 

The  first  year  after  leaving  home  I  was  at  work  on  a  farm,  and  almost 
every  clay  when  alone  in  the  fields  would  burst  into  tears  —  not  because 
I  had  to  work,  but  because  my  father  was  dead  whom  I  loved,  and  our 


6  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

happy  family  separated  and  broken  up  never  to  live  together  again.  In 
my  new  place  1  was  kept  at  work  very  hard,  and  at  the  age  of  fourteen 
did  almost  the  work  of  a  man.  It  was  a  very  lonely  place  where  we  lived, 
and  nothing  to  interest  a  child  of  my  age.  The  people  I  lived  with  seemed 
to  me  as  very  old,  though  they  were  probably  not  more  than  thirty-six 
years  of  age,  and  felt  no  particular  interest  in  me,  more  than  to  keep  me 
constantly  at  work,  early  and  late,  in  all  kinds  of  weather,  of  which  I 
never  complained.  I  have  many  times  worked  all  day  in  the  woods, 
chopping  down  trees,  with  my  shoes  filled  with  snow;  never  had  a  pair  of 
boots  till  I  was  more  than  twenty  years  old.  Once  in  two  weeks  I  was 
allowed  to  go  to  church,  which  opportunity  I  always  improved.  1  liked 
to  attend  church,  for  I  could  see  so  many  folks,  and  the  habit  which  I 
then  acquired  has  never  to  this  day  left  me,  and  my  love  for  it  dates  back 
to  this  time  in  my  youth,  though  the  attractions  now  are  different. 

I  shall  never  forget  how  frightened  I  was  at  the  great  eclipse  which 
took  place  on  the  16th  of  June,  1806,  and  which  so  terrified  the  good  people 
in  every  part  of  the  land.  They  were  more  ignorant  about  such  operations 
of  the  sun  fifty-four  years  ago  than  at  the  present  time.  I  had  heard 
something  about  eclipses  but  had  not  the  faintest  idea  what  it  could  be. 
I  was  hoeing  corn  that  day  in  a  by-place  three  miles  from  town,  and 
thought  it  certainly  was  the  day  of  judgment.  I  watched  the  sun  steadily 
disappearing  with  a  trembling  heart,  and  not  till  it  again  appeared  bright 
and  shining  as  before,  did  I  regain  my  breath  and  courage  sufficient  to 
whistle. 

The  winter  before  I  was  fifteen  years  old,  I  went  to  live  with  a  house 
carpenter  to  learn  the  trade,  and  was  bound  to  him  by  my  guardian  till 
I  was  twenty-one  years  old,  and  was  to  have  my  board  and  clothes  for 
my  services.  I  learned  the  business  very  readily,  and  during  the  last 
three  years  of  my  apprenticeship  could  do  the  work  of  a  man. 

It  was  a  very  pleasant  family  that  I  lived  with  while  learning  my  trade. 
In  the  year  1809  my  "boss"  took  a  job  in  Torringford,  and  I  went  with 
him.  After  being  absent  several  months  from  home,  I  felt  very  anxious 
to  see  my  poor  mother  who  lived  about  two  miles  from  Plymouth.  She 
lived  alone — with  the  exception  of  my  youngest  brother  about  nine  years 
old.  I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  go  down  and  see  her  one  night. 
In  this  way  I  could  satisfy  my  boss  by  not  losing  any  time.  It  was  about 
twenty  miles,  and  I  only  sixteen  years  old.  I  was  really  sorry  after  I  had 
started,  but  was  not  the  boy  to  back  out.  It  took  me  till  nearly  morning 
to  get  there,  tramping  through  the  woods  half  of  the  way;  every  noise  I 
heard  I  thought  was  a  bear  or  something  that  would  kill  me,  and  the 
frightful  notes  of  the  whippoorwill  made  my  hair  stand  on  end.  The 
dogs  were  after  me  at  every  house  I  passed.  I  have  never  forgotten  that 
night.  The  boys  of  to-day  do  not  see  such  times  as  I  did. 


LIFE  OF  CHAUXCEY  JEROME. 

The  next  year,  1810,  my  boss  took  a  job  in  Ellsworth  Society,  Litchfield 
County.  I  tooted  it  to  and  from  that  place  several  times  in  the  course 
of  the  year,  with  a  load  of  joiners'  tools  on  my  back.  What  would  a  boy 
17  years  old  now  think  to  travel  thirty  miles  in  a  hot  summer's  day,  with 
a  heavy  load  of  joiners'  tools  on  his  back?  But  that  was  about  the  only 
way  that  we  could  get  around  in  those  days.  At  that  time  there  were 
not  half  a  dozen  one-horse  wagons  in  the  whole  town.  At  that  place  I 
attended  the  church  of  Rev.  Daniel  Parker,  father  of  Hon.  Amasa  J. 
Parker,  of  Albany,  who  was  then  a  little  boy  four  or  five  years  old.  I 
often  saw  him  at  meeting  with  his  mother.  He  is  a  first  cousin  of  F.  S. 
cS:  J.  Parker  of  this  city,  two  highly  respectable  men  engaged  in  the  paper 
business. 

In  the  fall  of  1811,  I  made  a  bargain  with  the  man  that  I  was  bound 
to,  that  if  he  would  give  me  four  months  in  the  winter  of  each  year  when 
the  business  was  dull,  I  would  clothe  myself.  I  therefore  went  to  Water- 
bury,  and  hired  myself  to  Lewis  Stebbins,  (a  singing  master  of  that 
place,)  to  work  at  making  the  dials  for  the  old  fashioned  long  clock. 
This  kind  of  business  gave  me  great  satisfaction,  for  I  always  had  a  desire 
to  work  at  clocks.  In  1807,  when  I  was  fourteen  years  old,  I  proposed  to 
my  guardian  to  get  me  a  place  with  Air.  Eli  Terry,  of  Plymouth,  to  work 
at  them.  Mr.  Terry  was  at  that  time  making  more  clocks  than  any  other 
man  in  the  country,  about  two  hundred  in  a  year,  which  was  thought  to 
be  a  great  number. 

My  guardian,  a  good  old  man,  told  me  that  there  was  so  many  clocks 
then  making,  that  the  country  would  soon  be  filled  with  them,  and  the 
business  would  be  good  for  nothing  in  two  or  three  years.  This  opinion 
of  that  wise  man  made  me  feel  very  sad.  I  well  remember,  when  I  was 
about  twelve  years  old,  what  I  heard  some  old  gentleman  say,  at  a  train 
ing,  (all  of  the  good  folks  in  those  days  were  as  sure  to  go  to  training  as  to 
attend  church,)  they  were  talking  about  Mr.  Terry;  the  foolish  man  they 
said,  had  begun  to  make  two  hundred  clocks;  one  said,  he  never  would 
live  long  enough  to  finish  them;  another  remarked,  that  if  he  did  he  never 
would,  nor  could  possibly  sell  so  many,  and  ridiculed  the  very  idea. 

I  was  a  little  fellow,  but  heard  and  swallowed  every  word  those  wise 
men  said,  but  I  did  not  relish  it  at  all,  for  I  meant  some  day  to  make 
clocks  myself,  if  I  lived. 

What  would  those  good  old  men  have  thought  when  they  were  laughing 
at  and  ridiculing  Mr.  Terry,  if  they  had  known  that  the  little  urchin  who 
was  so  eagerly  listening  to  their  conversation  would  live  to  make  Two 
Hundred  Thousand  metal  clocks  in  one  year,  and  many  millions  in 
his  life.  They  have  probably  been  dead  for  years,  that  little  boy  is  now 
an  old  man,  and  during  his  life  has  seen  these  great  changes.  The 


8  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

clock  business  has  grown  to  be  one  of  the  largest  in  the  country,  and 
almost  every  kind  of  American  manufactures  have  improved  in  much  the 
same  ratio,  and  I  cannot  now  believe  that  there  will  ever  be  in  the  same 
space  of  future  time  so  many  improvements  and  inventions  as  those  of 
the  past  half  century — one  of  the  most  important  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  Everyday  things  with  us  now  would  have  appeared  to  our  fore 
fathers  as  incredible.  But  returning  to  my  story — having  got  myself 
tolerably  well  posted  about  clocks  at  Waterbury,  I  hired  myself  to  two 
men  to  go  into  the  state  of  New  Jersey,  to  make  the  old  fashioned  seven 
foot  standing  clock-case.  Messrs.  Hotchkjss  and  Pierpont,  of  Plymouth, 
had  been  selling  that  kind  of  a  clock  without  the  cases,  in  the  northern 
part  of  that  State,  for  about  twenty  dollars,  apiece.  The  purchasers, 
had  complained  to  them  however,  that  there  was  no  one  in  that  region 
that  could  make  the  case  for  them,  which  prevented  many  others  from 
buying.  These  two  men  whom  I  went  with,  told  them  that  they  would 
get  some  one  to  go  out  from  Connecticut,  to  make  the  case,  and  thought 
they  could  be  made  for  about  eighteen  or  twenty  dollars  apiece,  which 
would  then  make  the  whole  clock  cost  about  forty  dollars — not  so  very 
costly  after  all;  for  a  clock  was  then  considered  the  most  useful  of  any 
thing  that  could  be  had  in  a  family,  lor  what  it  cost.  I  entered  into  an 
agreement  with  these  men  at  once,  and  a  few  days  after,  we  three  started 
on  the  14th  Dec.,  1812,  in  an  old  lumber  wagon,  with  provisions  for  the 
journey,  to  the  far  off  Jersey.  This  same  trip  can  now  be  made  in  a  few 
hours.  We  \vere  many  days.  We  passed  through  Watertown,  and  other 
villages,  and  stopped  the  first  night  at  Bethel.  This  is  the  very  place 
where  P.  T.  Barnum  was  born,  and  at  about  this  time,  of  whom  I  shall 
speak  more  particularly  hereafter.  The  next  morning  we  started  again 
on  our  journey,  and  not  many  hours  after,  arrived  in  Norwalk,  then  quite 
a  small  village,  situated  on  Long  Island  Sound;  at  this  place  I  saw  the 
salt  water  for  the  first  time  in  my  life,  also  a  small  row-boat,  and  began 
to  feel  that  I  was  a  great  traveler  indeed.  The  following  night  we  stopped 
at  Stamford,  which  was,  as  I  viewed  it,  a  great  place;  here  I  saw  a  few 
sloops  on  the  Sound,  which  I  thought  was  the  greatest  sight  that  I  had 
ever  seen.  This  \vas  years  before  a  steamboat  had  ever  passed  through 
the  Sound.  The  next  morning  we  started  again  for  New  York,  and  as  we 
passed  along  J  was  more  and  more  astonished  at  the  wonderful  things 
that  I  saw,  and  began  to  think  that  the  world  was  very  extensive.  We 
did  not  arrive  at  the  city  until  night,  but  there  being  a  full  moon  every 
thing  appeared  as  pleasant,  as  in  the  day-time.  We  passed  down  through 
the  Bowery,  which  was  then  like  a  country  village,  then  through  Chatham 
street  to  Pearl  street,  and  stopped  for  the  night  at  a  house  kept  by  old 
Mr.  Titus.  I  arose  early  the  next  morning  and  hurried  into  the  street 
to  see  how  a  city  looked  by  day-light.  1  stood  on  the  corner  of  Chatham 


LIFE  OF  CHAUXCEY  JEROME.  V 

and  Pearl  for  more  than  an  hour,  and  I  must  confess  that  if  I  was  ever 
astonished  in  my  lite,  it  was  at  that  time.  I  could  not  understand  why 
so  many  people,  of  every  age,  description  and  dress,  were  hurrying  so  in 
every  direction.  I  asked  a  man  what  was  going  on,  and  what  all  this 
excitement  meant,  but  he  passed  right  along  without  noticing  me,  which 
I  thought  was  very  uncivil,  and  I  formed  a  very  poor  opinion  of  those 
city  folks.  I  ate  nothing  that  morning,  for  I  thought  I  could  be  in  better 
business  for  a  while  at  least.  I  wandered  about  gazing  at  the  many  new 
sights,  and  went  out  as  far  as  the  Park;  at  that  time  the  workmen  were 
finishing  the  interior  ol  the  City  Hall.  I  was  greatly  puzzled  to  know  how 
the  winding  stone  stairs  could  be  fixed  without  any  seeming  support  and 
yet  be  perfectly  safe.  After  viewing  many  sights,  all  of  which  were 
exceedingly  interesting  to  me,  I  returned  to  the  house  where  my  com 
panions  were.  They  told  me  that  they  had  just  heard  that  the  ship 
Macedonian,  which  was  taken  a  few  days  before  from  the  British  by  one 
of  our  ships,  had  just  been  brought  into  the  harbor  and  lay  off  down  by 
Burling  Slip,  or  in  that  region.  We  went  down  to  see  her,  and  went  on 
board.  I  was  surprised  and  frightened  to  see  brains  and  blood  scattered 
about  on  the  deck  in  every  direction.  This  prize  was  taken  by  the  gallant 
Decatur,  but  a  short  distance  from  New  York.  Hastening  back  from  this 
sickening  scene,  we  resumed  our  journey.  My  two  companions  had  been 
telling  me  that  we  should  have  to  cross  the  North  River  in  a  boat,  and  I 
did  not  understand  how  a  boat  could  be  made  to  carry  our  team  and  be 
perfectly  sale,  but  when  we  arrived  there,  I  was  much  surprised  to  see 
other  teams  that  were  to  cross  over  with  us,  and  a  number  of  people. 
At  that  time  an  old  scow  crossed  from  New  York  City  to  the  Jersey 
shore,  once  in  about  two  hours.  What  a  great  change  has  taken  place  in 
the  last  forty-seven  years;  now  large  steam  ferry  boats  are  crossing  and 
recrossing,  making  the  trip  in  a  few  minutes.  It  was  the  first  time  that 
I  frad  ever  crossed  a  stream,  except  on  a  bridge,  and  I  feared  that  we 
might  upset  and  all  be  drowned,  but  no  accident  happened  to  us;  we 
landed  in  safety,  and  went  on  our  way  rejoicing  towards  Elizabethtown. 
At  that  place  I  saw  a  regiment  of  soldiers  from  Kentucky,  who  were  on 
their  way  to  the  northern  frontier  to  fight  the  British.  They  were  a  rough 
set  of  fellows,  and  looked  as  though  they  could  do  a  great  deal  of  fighting. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  this  was  the  time  of  the  last  war  with  England. 
We  passed  on  through  Elizabethtown  and  Morristown  to  Dutch  Valley, 
where  we  stopped  for  the  night.  We  remained  at  this  place  a  few  days, 
looking  about  for  a  cabinet  shop,  or  a  suitable  place  to  make  the  clock 
cases.  Not  succeeding,  we  went  a  mile  further  north,  to  a  place  called 
Schooler's  Mountain;  here  we  found  a  building  that  suited  us.  It  was 
then  the  day  before  Christmas.  The  people  of  that  region,  we  found, 
kept  that  day  more  strictly  than  the  Sabbath,  and  as  we  were  not  ready 


10  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

to  go  to  work,  we  passed  Christmas  day  indoors  feeling  very  lonely  indeed. 
The  next  day  we  began  operations.  A  young  man  from  the  lower  part  of 
New  Jersey  worked  with  me  all  winter.  We  boarded  ourselves  in  the  same 
building  that  we  worked  in,  I  doing  all  of  the  house-work  and  cooking, 
none  of  which  was  very  fine  or  fancy,  our  principal  food  being  pork, 
potatoes  and  bread,  using  our  work-bench  for  a  table.  Hard  work  gave 
us  good  appetite.  We  would  work  on  an  average  about  fifteen  hours  a 
day,  the  house-work  not  occupying  much  of  our  time.  I  was  then  only 
nineteen  years  old,  and  it  hardly  seems  possible  that  the  boys  of  the 
present  day  could  pass  through  such  trials  and  hardships,  and  live.  We 
worked  in  this  way  all  winter.  When  the  job  was  finished,  I  took  my 
little  budget  of  clothes  and  started  for  home.  I  traveled  the  first  day  as 
far  as  Elizabethtown,  and  stopped  there  all  night,  but  found  no  convey 
ance  from  there  to  New  York.  I  was  told  that  if  I  would  go  down  to  the 
Point,  I  might  in  the  course  of  the  day,  get  a  passage  in  a  sailing  vessel 
to  the  city.  I  went  down  early  in  the  morning  and,  after  waiting  till 
noon,  found  a  chance  to  go  with  two  men  in  a  small  sail  boat.  1  was 
greatly  alarmed  at  the  strange  motions  of  the  boat  which  I  thought  would 
upset,  and  felt  greatly  relieved  wrhen  I  was  again  on  terra  firma. 

I  wandered  about  the  streets  of  New  York  all  that  afternoon,  bought  a 
quantity  of  bread  and  cheese,  and  engaged  a  passage  on  the  Packet  Sloop 
Eliza,  for  New  Haven,  of  her  Captain  Zebulon  Bradley.  I  slept  on  board 
of  her  that  night  at  the  dock,  the  next  day  we  set  sail  for  New  Haven, 
about  ten  o'clock  in  the  forenoon,  with  a  fair  wind,  and  arrived  at  the 
long  wharf  in  (that  city)  about  eight  o'clock  the  same  day.  I  stopped  at 
John  Howe's  Hotel,  at  the  head  of  the  wharf.  This  was  the  first  time 
that  I  was  ever  in  this  beautiful  city,  and  I  little  thought  then  that  I  ever 
should  live  there,  wrorking  at  my  favorite  business,  with  three  hundred 
men  in  my  employ,  or  that  I  should  ever  be  its  Mayor. — Times  change. 

Very  early  the  next  morning,  after  looking  about  a  little,  I  started 
with  my  bundle  of  clothes  in  one  hand,  and  my  bread  and  cheese  in  the 
other,  to  find  the  Waterbury  turnpike,  and  after  dodging  about  for  a  long 
time,  succeeded  in  finding  it,  and  passed  on  up  through  Waterbury  to 
Plymouth,  walking  the  whole  distance,  and  arrived  home  about  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  This  was  my  first  trip  abroad,  and  I  really  felt 
that  I  was  a  great  traveler,  one  who  had  seen  much  of  the  wrorld!  What 
a  great  change  has  taken  place  in  so  short  space  of  time. 

Soon  after  I  returned  from  my  western  trip,  there  began  to  be  a  great 
excitement  throughout  the  land,  about  the  war.  It  was  proposed  by  the 
Governor  of  Connecticut,  John  Cotton  Smith,  of  Sharon,  to  raise  one  or 
two  regiments  of  State  troops  to  defend  it  in  case  of  invasion.  One 
Company  of  one  hundred  men,  was  raised  in  the  towns  of  Waterbury, 


LIFE    OF    CHAUNCEY   JEROME.  11 

Watertown,  Middlebury,  Plymouth  and  Bethlem,  and  John  Buckingham 
chosen  Captain,  who  is  now  living  in  Waterbury;  the  other  commissioned 
officers  of  the  company,  were  Jas.  M.  L.  Scovill,  of  Waterbury,  and 
Joseph  H.  Bellamy,  of  Bethlem.  The  company  being  composed  of  young 
men,  and  I  being  about  the  right  age,  had  of  course  to  be  one  of  them. 
Early  in  the  Summer  of  1813,  the  British  fleet  run  two  of  our  ships  of 
war  up  the  Thames  River,  near  Xew  London.  Their  ships  being  so  large 
could  not  enter,  but  lay  at  its  mouth.  Their  presence  so  near  greatly 
alarmed  the  citizens  of  that  city,  and  in  fact,  all  of  the  people  in  the 
eastern  part  of  the  State.  Our  regiment  was  ordered  to  be  ready  to  start 
for  Xew  London  by  the  first  of  August.  The  Plymouth  company  was 
called  together  on  Sunday,  which  was  the  first  of  August,  and  exercised 
on  the  Green  in  front  ot  the  church,  in  the  fore  part  of  the  day.  This 
unusual  occurrence  of  a  military  display  on  the  Sabbath  greatly  alarmed 
the  good  people  of  the  congregation,  but  it  really  was  a  case  of  necessity, 
we  were  preparing  to  defend  our  homes  from  a  foreign  foe. 

In  the  afternoon  we  attended  church  in  a  body,  wearing  our  uniforms, 
to  the  wonder  and  astonishment  of  boys,  but  terrible  to  the  old  people. 
On  Monday  morning  we  started  on  a  march  to  Hartford,  sleeping  that 
night  in  a  barn,  in  the  eastern  part  of  Farmington,  and  reaching  Hartford 
the  next  day,  where  we  joined  the  other  companies,  and  all  started  for 
Xew  London.  The  first  night  we  slept  in  a  barn  in  East  Hartford,  and 
the  second  one  in  an  old  church  in  Marlboro.  I  remember  lying  on  the 
seat  of  a  pew,  with  my  knapsack  under  my  head.  We  arrived  at  X'ew 
London  on  Saturday,  marching  the  whole  distance  in  the  first  week  in 
August,  and  a  hotter  time  I  have  never  experienced  since.  We  were 
dressed  in  heavy  woolen  clothes,  carrying  heavy  guns  and  knapsacks,  and 
wearing  large  leather  caps.  It  was  indeed  a  tedious  job.  We  were  whole 
days  traveling  what  can  now  be  done  in  less  than  as  many  hours,  and  were 
cornpletely  used  up  when  we  arrived  there,  which  would  not  appear 
strange.  We  were  immediately  stationed  on  the  high  ground,  back  from 
the  river,  about  half  way  between  the  city  and  the  light-house,  in  plain 
view  of  the  enemy's  ships.  They  would  frequently,  when  there  was  a 
favorable  wind,  hoist  their  sails  and  beat  about  in  the  harbor,  making  a 
splendid  appearance,  and  practising  a  good  deal  with  their  heavy  guns 
on  a  small  American  sloop,  which  they  had  taken  and  anchored  a  long 
distance  off.  The  bounding  of  the  cannon  balls  on  the  water  was  an 
interesting  sight  to  me.  The  first  night  after  our  arrival,  I  was  put  on 
guard  near  the  Light-house,  and  in  plain  sight  of  the  ships.  I  was  much 
afraid  that  the  sharp  shooters  from  their  barges  would  take  me  for  a 
target  and  be  smart  enough  to  hit  me;  and  a  heavy  shower  with  thunder 
and  lightning  passing  over  us  during  the  night,  did  not  alleviate  my 
distress.  I  was  but  a  boy,  only  twenty  years  old,  and  would  naturally 


12  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

be  timid  in  such  a  situation,  but  I  passed  the  night  without  being  killed; 
it  seems  that  was  not  the  way  that  I  was  to  die. 

I  soon  became  sick  and  disgusted  with  a  soldier's  life;  it  seemed  to  be 
too  lazy  and  low-lived  to  suit  me,  and,  as  near  as  I  could  judge,  the 
inhabitants  thought  us  all  a  low  set  of  fellows.  I  never  have  had  a  desire 
to  live  or  be  anywhere  without  I  could  be  considered  at  least  as  good  as 
the  average,  w7hich  failing  I  have  now  as  strong  as  ever.  We  not  having 
any  battles  to  fight,  had  no  opportunities  oi  showing  our  bravery,  and 
after  guarding  the  city  for  forty-five  days,  \vere  discharged;  over  which 
we  made  a  great  rejoicing,  and  returned  home  by  the  way  of  Xew  Haven, 
which  was  my  second  visit  to  this  city.  The  North  and  Centre  Churches 
were  then  building,  also,  the  house  now  standing  at  the  North-east  corner 
of  the  Green,  owned  then  by  David  DeForest;  stopping  here  over  night, 
we  passed  on  home  to  Plymouth.  I  had  not  slept  on  a  bed  since  I  left 
home,  and  w-ould  have  as  soon  taken  the  barn  floor  as  a  good  bed.  This 
ended  my  first  campaign. 

After  this  I  went  to  work  at  m)*  trade,  the  Joiners  business.  I  was 
still  an  apprentice;  would  not  be  twenty-one  till  the  next  June. 

The  war  was  not  yet  over,  and  in  October,  1814,  our  Regiment  was 
ordered  by  Governor  Smith  to  New  Haven,  to  guard  the  city.  Col. 
Sanford,  (father  of  Elihu  and  Harvey  Sanford  of  this  city,)  commanded 
us.  On  arriving,  we  were  stationed  at  the  old  slaughter-house,  in  the 
Eastern  part  of  the  city,  at  the  end  of  Green  street.  All  the  land  East  of 
Academy  street  was  then  in  farmers'  lots,  and  planted  with  corn,  rye  and 
potatoes  now  covered  with  large  manufactories  and  fine  dwellings.  I 
little  thought  then,  that  I  should  have  the  largest  Clock-factory  in  the 
world,  within  a  stone's  throw  of  my  sleeping-place,  as  has  since  proved. 
Nothing  of  much  importance  took  place  during  our  campaign  at  New 
Haven.  The  British  did  not  land  or  molest  us.  We  built  a  large  fort  on 
the  high  grounds,  on  the  East  Haven  side,  which  commanded  the  Harbor, 
the  ruins  of  which  can  now  be  seen  from  the  city.  A  good  deal  of  tault 
was  found  by  the  officers  and  men  with  the  provisions,  which  were  very 
poor.  When  this  campaign  closed  I  was  through  \vith  my  military  glory, 
and  returned  to  my  home,  sick  and  disgusted  \vith  a  soldier's  life.  I  hope 
our  country  will  not  be  disgraced  with  another  war. 

All  of  the  old  people  will  remember  what  a  great  rejoicing  there  was 
through  the  whole  country,  when  peace  was  declared  in  February,  1815. 
I  was  married  about  that  time  to  Salome  Smith,  daughter  of  Capt. 
Theophilus  Smith,  one  of  the  last  of  the  Puritanical  families  there  wras  in 
the  town;  she  made  one  of  the  best  of  wives  and  mothers.  She  died  on 
the  6th  of  March,  1854.  We  lived  together  39  years.  A  short  time  after 
we  wrere  married,  I  moved  to  the  town  of  Farmington,  and  hired  a  house 


LIFE    OF    CHAUNCEY    JEROME.  13 

of  Mr.  Chauncey  Deming  to  live  in,  and  went  to  work  for  Capt.  Selah 
Porter,  for  twenty  dollars  per  month.  We  built  a  house  for  Maj.  Timothy 
Cowles,  which  was  then  the  best  one  in  Farmington.  I  was  not  worth  at 
this  time  fifty  dollars  in  the  world. 

1815,  the  year  after  the  war,  was,  probably  the  hardest  one  there  has 
been  for  the  last  hundred  years,  for  a  young  man  to  begin  for  himself. 
Pork  was  sold  for  thirteen  dollars  per  hundred,  Flour  at  thirteen  dollars 
per  barrel ;  Molasses  was  sold  for  seventy-five  cents  per  gallon,  and  brown 
Sugar  at  thirty-four  cents  per  pound.  I  remember  buying  some  cotton 
cloth  for  a  common  shirt,  for  which  I  paid  one  dollar  a  yard,  no  better 
than  can  now  be  bought  for  ten  cents.  I  mention  these  things  to  let  the 
young  men  know  what  a  great  change  has  taken  place,  and  what  my 
prospects  were  at  that  time.  Not  liking  this  place,  I  moved  back  to 
Plymouth.  I  did  not  have  money  enough  to  pay  my  rent,  which  however, 
was  not  due  until  the  next  Ma>',  but  Mr.  Deming,  who  by  the  way,  was 
one  of  the  richest  men  in  the  State,  was  determined  that  I  should  not  go 
till  I  had  paid  him.  I  promised  him  that  he  should  have  the  money 
when  it  was  due,  if  my  life  was  spared,  and  he  finally  consented  to  let  me 
go.  When  it  came  due  I  walked  to  Farmington,  fifteen  miles,  paid  him 
and  walked  back  the  same  day,  feeling  relieved  and  happy.  I  obtained 
the  job  of  finishing  the  inside  of  a  dwelling  house,  which  gave  me  great 
encouragement.  The  times  were  awful  hard  and  but  little  business  done 
at  anything.  It  would  almost  frighten  a  man  to  see  a  five-dollar  bill, 
they  were  so  very  scarce.  My  work  was  about  two  miles  from  where  I 
lived.  My  wife  was  confined  about  this  time  with  her  first  babe.  I 
would  rise  every  morning  two  hours  before  day-light  and  prepare  my 
breakfast,  and  taking  my  dinner  in  a  little  pail,  bid  my  good  wife  good-by 
for  the  day,  and  start  for  my  work,  not  returning  till  night.  About  this 
time  the  Congregational  Society  employed  a  celebrated  music  teacher 
to  conduct  the  church  singing,  and  I  having  always  had  a  desire  to  sing 
sacred  music,  joined  his  choir  and  would  walk  a  long  distance  to  attend 
the  singing  schools  at  night  after  working  hard  all  day.  I  was  chosen 
chorister  after  a  few  weeks,  which  encouraged  me  very  much  in  the  way  of 
singing,  and  was  afterwards  employed  as  a  teacher  to  some  extent,  and 
for  a  long  time  led  the  singing  there  and  at  Bristol  where  I  afterwards 
lived.  The  next  summer  was  the  cold  one  of  1816,  which  none  of  the  old 
people  will  ever  forget,  and  which  many  of  the  young  have  heard  a  great 
deal  about.  There  was  ice  and  snow  in  every  month  in  the  year.  I  well 
remember  on  the  seventh  of  June,  while  on  my  way  to  work,  about  a  mile 
from  home,  dressed  throughout  with  thick  woolen  clothes  and  an  overcoat 
on,  my  hands  got  so  cold  that  I  was  obliged  to  lay  down  my  tools  and  put 
on  a  pair  of  mittens  which  I  had  in  my  pocket.  It  snowed  about  an  hour 
that  day.  On  the  tenth  of  June,  my  wife  brought  in  some  clothes  that 


14  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

had  been  spread  on  the  ground  the  night  before,  which  were  frozen  stiff 
as  in  winter.  On  the  fourth  of  July,  I  saw  several  men  pitching  quoits  in 
the  middle  of  the  day  with  thick  overcoats  on,  and  the  sun  shining  bright 
at  the  same  time.  A  body  could  not  feel  very  patriotic  in  such  weather. 
I  often  sawr  men  when  hoeing  corn,  stop  at  the  end  of  a  row  and  get  in 
the  sun  by  a  fence  to  warm  themselves.  Not  half  enough  corn  ripened 
that  year  to  furnish  seed  for  the  next.  I  worked  at  my  trade,  and  had 
the  job  of  finishing  the  inside  of  a  three-story  house,  having  twenty-seven 
doors  and  a  white  oak  matched  floor  to  make,  and  did  the  whole  for 
eighty-five  dollars.  The  same  work  could  not  now  be  done  as  I  did  it  for 
less  than  five  hundred  dollars.  Such  times  as  these  were  indeed  hard  for 
poor  young  men.  We  did  not  have  many  carpets  or  costly  furniture  and 
servants;  but  as  winter  approached  times  seemed  to  grow  harder  and 
harder.  No  work  could  be  had.  I  was  in  debt  for  my  little  house  and 
lot  which  I  had  bought  only  a  short  time  before,  near  the  center  of 
Plymouth,  and  had  a  payment  to  make  on  it  the  next  spring.  I  proposed 
going  south  to  the  city  of  Baltimore,  to  obtain  work,  and  had  already 
made  preparations  to  go  and  leave  my  young  family  for  the  winter,  at 
which  I  could  not  help  feeling  very  sad,  when  I  accidentally  heard  that 
Mr.  Eli  Terry  was  about  to  fit  up  his  factory  (which  was  built  the  year 
before,)  for  making  his  new  Patent  Shelf  Clock.  I  thought  perhaps  I 
could  get  a  job  \vith  him,  and  started  immediately  to  see  Mr.  Terry,  and 
closed  a  bargain  with  him  at  once.  I  never  shall  forget  the  great  good 
feeling  that  this  bargain  gave  me.  It  was  a  pleasant  kind  of  business  for 
me,  and  then  I  knew  I  could  see  my  family  once  a  week  or  oftener  if 
necessarv. 


CHAPTER  II. 

PROGRESS  OF  CLOCK  MAKING. IMPROVEMENTS   BY  ELI   TERRY  AND  OTHERS. 

—SHELF  CLOCK. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  book  I  have  said  that  I  would  give  to  the 
public  a  history  of  the  American  Clock  Business.  I  am  now  the  oldest 
man  living  that  has  had  much  to  do  with  the  manufacturing  of  clocks, 
and  can,  I  believe,  give  a  more  correct  account  than  any  other  person. 
This  great  business  has  grown  almost  from  nothing  during  my  remem 
brance.  Nearly  all  of  the  clocks  used  in  this  country  are  made  or  have 
been  made  in  the  small  State  of  Connecticut,  and  a  heavy  trade  in  them 
is  carried  on  in  foreign  countries.  The  business  or  manufacture  of  them 
has  become  so  systematized  of  late  that  it  has  brought  the  prices  exceed 
ingly  low,  and  it  has  long  been  the  astonishment  of  the  whole  world  how 


LIFE    OF    CHAUXCEV    JEROME.  15 

they  could  be  made  so  cheap  and  yet  be  good.  A  gentleman  called  at 
my  factory  a  few  years  ago,  when  I  was  carrying  on  the  business,  who 
said  he  lived  in  London,  and  had  seen  my  clocks  in  that  city,  and  de 
clared  that  he  was  perfectly  astonished  at  the  price  of  them,  and  had 
often  remarked  that  if  he  ever  came  to  this  country  he  would  visit  the 
factory  and  see  for  himself.  After  I  had  showed  him  all  the  different 
processes  it  required  to  complete  a  clock,  he  expressed  himself  in  the 
strongest  terms — he  told  me  he  had  traveled  a  great  deal  in  Europe,  and 
had  taken  a  great  interest  in  all  kinds  of  manufactures,  but  had  never 
seen  anything  equal  to  this,  and  did  not  believe  that  there  was  anything 
made  in  the  known  world  that  made  as  much  show,  and  at  the  same  time 
was  as  cheap  and  useful  as  the  brass  clock  which  I  was  then  manu 
facturing. 


The  man  above  all  others  in  his  day  for  the  wood  clock  was  Eli  Terry. 
He  was  born  in  East  Windsor,  Conn.,  in  April,  1772,  and  made  a  few  old 
fashioned  hang-up  clocks  in  his  native  place  before  he  was  twenty-one 
years  of  age.  He  was  a  young  man  of  great  ingenuity  and  good  native 
talent.  He  moved  to  the  town  of  Plymouth,  Litchfielcl  county,  in  1793, 
and  commenced  making  a  few  of  the  same  kind,  working  alone  for 
several  years.  About  the  year  1800,  he  might  have  had  a  boy  or  one  or 
two  young  men  to  help  him.  They  would  begin  one  or  two  dozen  at  a  time, 
using  no  machinery,  but  cutting  the  wheels  and  teeth  with  a  saw  and 
jack-knile.  Mr.  Terry  would  make  two  or  three  trips  a  year  to  the  New 
Country,  as  it  was  then  called,  just  across  the  North  River,  taking  with 
him  three  or  four  clocks,  which  he  would  sell  for  about  twenty-five  dollars 
apiece.  This  was  for  the  movement  only.  In  1807  he  bought  an  old  mill 
in  the  southern  part  of  the  town,  and  fitted  it  up  to  make  his  clocks  by 
machinery.  About  this  time  a  number  of  men  in  Waterbury  associated 
themselves  together,  and  made  a  large  contract  with  him,  they  furnishing 
the  stock,  and  he  making  the  movements.  With  this  contract  and  what 
he  made  and  sold  to  other  parties,  he  accumulated  quite  a  little  fortune 
for  those  times.  The  first  five  hundred  clocks  ever  made  by  machinery 
in  the  country  were  started  at  one  time  by  Mr.  Terry  at  this  old  mill  in 
1808,  a  larger  number  than  had  ever  been  begun  at  one  time  in  the  world. 
Previous  to  this  time  the  wheels  and  teeth  had  been  cut  out  by  hand;  first 
marked  out  with  square  and  compasses,  and  then  sawed  with  a  fine  saw, 
a  very  slow  and  tedious  process.  Capt.  Riley  Blakeslee,  of  this  city, 
lived  with  Mr.  Terry  at  that  time,  and  worked  on  this  lot  of  clocks,  cutting 
the  teeth.  Talking  with  Capt.  Blakeslee  a  few  days  since,  he  related  an 
incident  which  happened  when  he  was  a  boy,  sixty  years  ago,  and  lived 
on  a  farm  in  Litchfielcl.  One  clav  Mr.  Terrv  came  to  the  house  where  he 


16  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

lived  to  sell  a  clock.  The  man  with  whom  young  Blakeslee  lived,  leit 
him  to  plow  in  the  field  and  went  to  the  house  to  make  a  bargain  for  it, 
which  he  did,  paying  Mr.  Terry  in  salt  pork,  a  part  of  which  he  carried 
home  in  his  saddle-bags  where  he  had  carried  the  clock.  He  was  at  that 
time  very  poor,  but  twenty-five  years  after  was  worth  8200,000,  all  of 
which  he  made  in  the  clock  business. 

Mr.  Terry  sold  out  his  business  to  Seth  Thomas  and  Silas  Hoadley, 
two  of  his  leading  workmen,  in  1810.  This  establishment  was  the  leading 
one  for  several  years,  but  other  ones  springing  up  in  the  vicinity,  the 
competition  became  so  great  that  the  prices  were  reduced  from  ten  to 
five  dollars  apiece  for  the  bare  movement.  Daniel  Clark,  Zenas  Cook  and 
Wm.  Porter,  started  clock-making  at  Waterbury,  and  carried  it  on  largely 
for  several  years,  but  finally  failed  and  went  out  of  the  business. 

Col.  Wm.  Leavenworth,  of  the  same  place,  was  in  the  business  in  1810, 
but  failed,  and  moved  to  Albany,  X.  V.  A  man  by  the  name  of  Mark 
Leavenworth  made  clocks  for  a  long  time,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  his 
life  manufactured  the  Patent  Shelf  Clock. 

Two  brothers,  James  and  Lemuel  Harrison,  made  a  few  before  the  year 
1800,  using  no  machinery,  making  their  wheels  with  a  saw  and  knife. 
Sixty  years  ago,  a  man  by  the  name  of  Gideon  Roberts  got  up  a  few  in  the 
old  way:  he  was  an  excellent  mechanic  and  made  a  good  article.  He 
would  finish  three  or  four  at  a  time  and  take  them  to  New  York  State  to 
sell.  I  have  seen  him  many  times,  when  I  was  a  small  boy,  pass  my 
father's  house  on  horseback  with  a  clock  in  each  side  of  his  saddle-bags, 
and  a  third  lashed  on  behind  the  saddle  with  the  dials  in  plain  sight. 
They  were  then  a  great  curiosity  to  me.  Mr.  Roberts  had  to  give  up  this 
kind  of  business;  he  could  not  compete  with  machinery.  John  Rich  of 
Bristol  was  in  the  business;  also  Levi  Lewis,  but  gave  it  up  in  a  few  years. 
An  Ives  family  in  Bristol  were  quite  conspicuous  as  clock-makers.  They 
wTere  good  mechanics.  One  of  them,  Joseph  Ives,  has  done  a  great  deal 
towards  improving  the  eight  day  brass  clock,  which  I  shall  speak  about 
hereafter. 

Chauncey  Boardman,  of  Bristol,  Riley  Whiting,  of  Winsted,  and  Asa 
Hopkins,  of  Northfield,  were  all  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  the  old 
fashioned  hang-up  clock.  Butler  Dunbar,  an  old  schoolmate  of  mine, 
and  father  of  Col.  Edward  Dunbar,  of  Bristol,  was  engaged  with  Dr. 
Titus  Merriman  in  the  same  business.  They  all  gave  up  the  business 
after  a  few  years. 

Mr.  Eli  Terry  (in  the  year  1814,)  invented  a  beautiful  shelf  clock  made 
of  wood,  which  completely  revolutionized  the  whole  business.  The 
making  of  the  old  fashioned  hang-up  wood  clock,  about  which  I  have 
been  speaking,  passed  out  of  existence.  This  patent  article  Mr.  Terry 


LIFE    OF    CHAUNCEY   JEROME.  17 

introduced,  was  called  the  Pillar  Scroll  Top  Case.  The  pillars  were 
about  twenty-one  inches  long,  three-quarters  of  an  inch  at  the  base,  and 
three-eights  at  the  top — resting  on  a  square  base,  and  the  top  finished 
by  a  handsome  cap.  It  had  a  large  dial  eleven  inches  square,  and  tablet 
below  the  dial  seven  by  eleven  inches.  This  style  of  clock  was  liked  very 
much  and  was  made  in  large  quantities,  and  for  several  years.  Mr.  Terry 
sold  a  right  to  manufacture  them  to  Seth  Thomas,  for  one  thousand 
dollars,  which  was  thought  to  be  a  great  sum.  At  first,  Terry  and  Thomas 
made  each  about  six  thousand  clocks  per  year,  but  afterwards  increased 
to  ten  or  twelve  thousand.  They  were  sold  for  fifteen  dollars  apiece  when 
first  ma nu fact uned.  I  think  that  these  two  men  cleared  about  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  apiece,  up  to  the  year  1825.  Mr.  Thomas 
had  made  a  good  deal  of  money  on  the  old  fashioned  style,  for  he  made 
a  good  article,  and  had  but  little  competition,  and  controlled  most  of 
the  trade. 

In  1818,  Joseph  Ives  invented  a  metal  clock,  making  the  plates  of  iron 
and  the  wheels  of  brass.  The  movement  was  very  large,  and  required  a 
case  about  five  feet  long.  This  style  was  made  for  two  or  three  years, 
but  not  in  large  quantities. 

In  the  year  1825,  the  writer  invented  a  new  case,  somewhat  larger 
than  the  Scroll  Top,  which  was  called  the  Bronze  Looking-Glass  Clock. 
This  was  the  richest  looking  and  best  clock  that  had  ever  been  made, 
for  the  price.  They  could  be  got  up  for  one  dollar  less  than  the  Scroll 
Top,  yet  sold  for  two  dollars  more. 


CHAPTER  III. 

PERSONAL     HISTORY     CONTINUED. COMMENCING     BUSINESS. SALE     TO     A 

SOUTHERNER. REMOVAL  TO   BRISTOL. FIRST  SERIOUS   LOSS. 

I  must  now  go  back  and  give  a  history  of  myself,  from  the  winter  of 
1816,  to  this  time  (1825.)  As  I  said  before,  I  went  to  work  for  Mr. 
Terry,  making  the  Patent  Shelf  Clock  in  the  winter  of  1816.  Mr.  Thomas 
had  been  making  them  for  about  two  years,  doing  nearly  all  of  the  labor 
on  the  case  by  hand.  Mr.  Terry  in  the  mean  time  being  a  great  mechanic 
had  made  many  improvements  in  the  way  of  making  the  cases.  Under 
his  directions  I  worked  a  long  time  at  putting  up  machinery  and  benches. 
We  had  a  circular  saw,  the  first  one  in  the  town,  and  which  was  considered 
a  great  curiosity.  In  the  course  of  the  winter  he  drew  another  plan  of  the 
Pillar  Scroll  Top  Case  with  great  improvements  over  the  one  which 
Thomas  was  then  making.  I  made  the  first  one  of  the  new  style  that  was 


18  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

ever  produced  in  that  factory,  which  became  so  celebrated  for  making 
the  patent  case  for  more  than  ten  years  after. 

When  my  time  was  out  in  the  spring,  1  bought  some  parts  of  clocks, 
mahogany,  veneers,  etc.,  and  commenced  in  a  small  shop,  business  for 
myself.  I  made  the  case,  and  bought  the  movements,  dials  and  glass, 
finishing  a  few  at  a  time.  I  found  a  ready  sale  for  them.  I  went  on  in 
this  small  way  for  a  few  years,  feeling  greatly  animated  with  my  pros 
perity,  occasionally  making  a  payment  on  my  little  house.  I  heard  one 
day  of  a  man  in  Bristol,  who  did  business  in  South  Carolina,  who  wanted 
to  buy  a  few  clocks  to  take  to  that  market  with  him.  I  started  at  once 
over  to  see  him,  and  soon  made  a  bargain  with  him  to  deliver  twelve  wood 
clocks  at  twelve  dollars  apiece.  I  returned  home  greatly  encouraged  by 
the  large  order,  and  went  right  to  work  on  them.  I  had  them  finished 
and  boxed  ready  for  shipping  in  a  short  time.  I  had  agreed  to  deliver 
them  on  a  certain  day  and  was  to  receive  S144  in  cash.  1  hired  an  old 
horse  and  lumber  wagon  of  one  of  my  neighbors,  loaded  the  boxes  and 
took  an  early  start  for  Bristol.  I  was  thinking  all  the  way  there  of  the 
large  sum  that  I  was  to  receive,  and  was  fearful  that  something  might 
happen  to  disappoint  me.  I  arrived  at  Bristol  early  in  the  forenoon  and 
hurried  to  the  house  of  my  customer,  and  told  him  I  had  brought  the  clocks 
as  agreed.  He  said  nothing  but  \vent  into  another  room  with  his  son.  I 
thought  surely  that  something  was  wrong  and  that  I  should  not  get  the 
wished-for  money,  but  after  a  while  the  old  gentleman  came  back  and 
sat  down  by  the  table.  "Here,"  he  says,  "is  your  money,  and  a  heap  of 
it,  too."  It  did  look  to  me  like  a  large  sum,  and  took  us  a  long  time  to 
count  it.  This  was  more  than  forty  years  ago,  and  money  was  very 
scarce.  I  took  it  with  a  trembling  hand,  and  securing  it  safely  in  my 
pocket,  started  immediately  for  home.  This  was  a  larger  sum  than  I 
had  ever  had  at  one  time,  and  I  was  much  alarmed  for  fear  that  I  should 
be  robbed  of  my  treasure  before  I  got  home.  I  thought  perhaps  it  might 
be  known  that  I  was  to  receive  a  large  sum  for  clocks,  and  that  some 
robbers  might  be  watching  in  a  lonely  part  of  the  road  and  take  it  from 
me,  but  not  meeting  any,  I  arrived  safely  home,  feeling  greatly  encouraged 
and  happy.  I  told  my  wife  that  I  would  make  another  payment  on  our 
house,  which  I  did  with  a  great  deal  of  satisfaction.  After  this  I  was  so 
anxious  to  get  along  with  my  work  that  I  did  not  so  much  as  go  out  into 
the  street  for  a  week  at  a  time.  I  would  not  go  out  of  the  gate  from  the 
time  I  returned  from  church  one  Sunday  till  the  next.  I  loved  to  work  as 
well  as  I  did  to  eat.  I  remember  once,  when  at  school,  of  chopping  a 
whole  load  of  wood,  for  a  great  lazy  boy,  for  one  penny,  and  I  used  to  chop 
all  the  wood  I  could  get  from  the  families  in  the  neighborhood,  moon 
light  nights,  for  very  small  sums.  The  winter  after  I  made  this  large 
sale,  I  took  about  one  dozen  of  the  Pillar  Scroll  Top  Clocks,  and  went  to 


LIFE    OF    CHAUXCEY    JEROME.  19 

the  town  of  \Yethersfield  to  sell  them.  I  hired  a  man  to  carry  me  over 
there  with  a  lumber  wagon,  who  returned  home.  I  would  take  one  of  these 
clocks  under  each  arm  and  go  from  house  to  house  and  offer  them  for  sale. 
The  people  seemed  to  be  well  pleased  with  them,  and  I  sold  them  for 
eighteen  dollars  apiece.  This  was  good  luck  for  me.  I  sold  my  last  one 
on  Saturday  afternoon.  There  had  been  a  fall  of  snow  the  night  before 
of  about  eight  or  ten  inches  which  ended  in  a  rain,  and  made  very  bad 
walking.  Here  I  was,  twenty-five  miles  from  home,  my  wife  was  expecting 
me,  and  1  felt  that  I  could  not  stay  over  Sunday.  I  was  anxious  to  tell  my 
family  of  my  good  luck  that  we  might  rejoice  together.  I  started  to  wralk 
the  whole  distance,  but  it  proved  to  be  the  hardest  physical  undertaking 
that  I  ever  experienced.  It  was  bedtime  when  I  reached  Farmington,1 
only  one-third  the  distance,  wallowing  in  snow  porridge  all  the  way.  I 
did  not  reach  home  till  near  Sunday  morning,  more  dead  than  alive.  I 
did  not  go  to  church  that  day,  which  made  many  wonder  what  had  become 
of  me,  for  1  was  always  expected  to  be  in  the  singers'  seat  on  Sunday.  I 
did  not  recover  from  the  effects  of  that  night-journey  for  a  long  time. 
Soon  after  this  occurrence,  I  began  to  increase  my  little  business,  and 
employed  my  old  joiner  "boss"  and  one  of  his  apprentices;  bought  my 
mahogany  in  the  plank  and  sawed  my  own  vaneers  with  a  hand-saw.  I 
engaged  a  man  with  a  one  horse  wagon  to  go  to  New  York  after  a  load  of 
mahogany,  and  went  with  him  to  select  it.  The  roads  wrere  very  muddy, 
and  we  were  obliged  to  walk  the  whole  distance  home  by  the  side  of  the 
wagon.  I  worked  along  in  this  small  way  until  the  year  1821,  when  I 
sold  my  house  and  lot,  which  I  had  almost  worshipped,  to  Air.  Terry; 
it  was  worth  six  hundred  dollars.  He  paid  me  one  hundred  wood  clock 
movements,  with  the  dials,  tablets,  glass  and  weights.  I  went  over  to 
Bristol  to  see  a  man  by  the  name  of  George  Mitchell,  who  owned  a  large 
two  story  house,  with  a  barn  and  seventeen  acres  of  good  land  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  town,  which  he  said  he  would  sell  and  take  his  pay 
in  clocks.  I  asked  him  how  many  of  the  Terry  Patent  Clocks  he  wrould 
sell  it  for;  he  said  two  hundred  and  fourteen.  I  told  him  I  would  give  it, 
and  closed  the  bargain  at  once.  I  finished  up  the  hundred  parts  \vhich  I 
had  got  from  Mr.  Terry,  exchanged  cases  with  him  for  more,  obtained 
some  credit,  and  in  this  way  made  out  the  quantity  for  Mitchell. 

The  next  summer  I  lost  seven  hundred  and  forty  dollars  by  Moses 
Galpin  of  Bethlem.  Five  or  six  others  with  myself  trusted  this  man 
Galpin  with  a  large  quantity  of  clocks,  and  he  took  them  to  Louisiana 
to  sell  in  the  fall  of  1821.  In  the  course  of  the  winter  he  was  taken  sick 
and  died  there.  One  of  his  pedlars  came  home  the  next  spring  without 
one  dollar  in  money;  the  creditors  were  called  together  to  see  what  had 
better  be  done.  The  note  that  he  had  given  me  the  fall  before  was  due 
in  July,  and  I  as  much  expected  it  as  I  did  the  sun  to  rise  and  set.  Here 


20  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

was  trouble  indeed;  it  was  a  great  sum  of  money  to  lose,  and  what  to  do 
I  didn't  know.  The  creditors  had  several  meetings  and  finally  concluded 
to  send  out  a  man  to  look  after  the  property  that  was  scattered  through 
the  state.  He  could  not  go  without  money.  We  thought  if  we  furnished 
him  with  means  to  go  and  finish  up  the  business,  we  should  certainly  get 
enough  to  pay  the  original  debt.  It  was  agreed  that  we  should  raise  a 
certain  sum,  and  that  each  one  should  pay  in  proportion  to  the  amount 
of  his  claim.  My  part  was  one  hundred  dollars,  and  it  was  a  hard  job 
for  me  to  raise  so  large  a  sum  after  my  great  loss.  When  it  came  fall  and 
time  for  him  to  start,  1  managed  in  some  way  to  have  it  ready.  This 
man's  name  was  Isaac  Turner,  about  fifty  years  old,  and  said  to  be  very 
respectable.  He  started  out  and  traveled  all  over  the  state,  but  found 
every  thing  in  the  worst  kind  of  shape.  The  men  to  whom  Galpin  had 
sold  would  not  pay  when  they  heard  that  he  was  dead.  Mr.  Turner  was 
gone  from  home  ten  months,  but  instead  of  his  returning  with  money  for 
us,  we  were  obliged  to  pay  money  that  he  had  borrowed  to  get  home  with, 
besides  his  expenses  for  the  ten  months  that  he  was  gone.  This  was 
harder  for  me  than  any  of  the  others,  and  was  indeed  a  bitter  pill.  As 
it  was  my  first  heavy  loss  I  could  not  help  feeling  very  bad. 

In  the  winter  and  spring  of  1822,  I  built  a  small  shop  in  Bristol,  for 
making  the  cases  only,  as  all  of  the  others  made  the  movements.  The 
first  circular  saw  ever  used  there  was  put  up  by  myself  in  1822,  and  this 
was  the  commencement  of  making  cases  by  machinery  in  that  town, 
which  has  since  been  so  renowned  for  its  clock  productions.  I  went  on 
making  cases  in  a  small  way  for  a  year  or  two,  sometimes  putting  in  a  few 
movements  and  selling  them,  but  not  making  much  money.  The  clocks 
of  Terry  and  Thomas  sold  first  rate,  and  it  was  quite  difficult  to  buy 
any  of  the  movements,  as  no  others  were  making  the  Patent  (lock  at 
that  time.  I  was  determined  to  have  some  movements  to  case,  and  went 
to  Chauncey  Boardman,  who  had  formerly  made  the  old  fashioned  hang 
up  movements,  and  told  him  I  wanted  him  to  make  me  two  hundred  of 
his  kind  with  such  alterations  as  I  should  suggest.  He  said  he  would 
make  them  for  me.  I  had  them  altered  and  made  so  as  to  take  a  case 
about  four  feet  long,  which  I  made  out  of  pine,  richly  stained  and  var 
nished.  This  made  a  good  clock  for  time  and  suited  farmers  first  rate. 

In  the  spring  of  1824,  I  wrent  into  company  with  two  men  by  the  name 
of  Peck,  from  Bristol.  We  took  two  hundred  of  these  movements  and  a 
few  tools  in  two  one  horse  wagons  and  started  East,  intending  to  stop  in 
the  vicinity  of  Boston.  We  stopped  at  a  place  about  fifteen  miles  from 
there  called  East  Randolph;  after  looking  about  a  little,  we  concluded 
to  start  our  business  there  and  hired  a  joiners'  shop  of  John  Adams,  a 
cousin  of  J.  Q.  Adams.  We  then  went  to  Boston  and  bought  a  load  of 
lumber,  and  commenced  operations.  I  was  the  case-maker  of  our  con- 


LIFE    OF    CHAUNCEY   JEROME.  21 

cern,  and  'pitched  into'  the  pine  lumber  in  good  earnest.  I  began  four 
cases  at  a  time  and  worked  like  putting  out  fire  on  them.  My  partners 
were  waiting  lor  some  to  be  finished  so  that  they  could  go  out  and  sell. 
In  two  or  three  days  I  had  got  them  finished  and  they  started  with  them, 
and  I  began  four  more.  In  a  day  or  two  they  returned  home  having  sold 
them  at  sixteen  dollars  each.  This  good  fortune  animated  me  very  much 
I  worked  about  fourteen  or  fit  teen  hours  per  day,  and  could  make  about 
four  cases  and  put  in  the  glass,  movements  and  dials.  \Ve  worked  on  in 
this  way  until  we  had  finished  up  the  two  hundred,  and  sold  them  at  an 
average  of  sixteen  dollars  apiece.  We  had  done  well  and  returned  home 
with  joyful  hearts  in  the  latter  part  of  June.  On  arriving  home  I  found 
my  little  daughter  about  five  years  old  quite  sick.  In  a  week  after  she 
died.  I  deeply  felt  the  loss  of  my  little  daughter,  and  every  7th  of  July 
it  comes  fresh  into  my  mind. 

In  the  fall  of  1824,  I  formed  a  company  with  my  brother,  Xoble  Jerome, 
and  Elijah  Darrow,  for  the  manufacturing  of  clocks,  and  began  making  a 
movement  that  required  a  case  about  six  or  eight  inches  longer  than  the 
Terry  Patent.  \Ye  did  very  well  at  this  for  a  year  or  two,  during  which 
time  I  invented  the  Bronze  Looking  Glass  Clock,  which  soon  revolution 
ized  the  whole  business.  As  I  have  said  before,  it  could  be  made  for  one 
dollar  less  and  sold  for  two  dollars  more  than  the  Patent  Case;  they  were 
very  show}'  and  a  little  longer.  With  the  introduction  of  this  clock  in  the 
year  1825,  closed  the  second  chapter  of  the  history  of  the  Yankee  Clock 
business. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE     BRONZE     LOOKING    GLASS     CLOCK. CHURCH     AT     BRISTOL. — -PANIC     OF 

1837. CLOCKS   AT  THE   SOUTH. — -THE  ONE   DAY   BRASS   CLOCK. 

With  the  introduction  of  the  Bronze  Looking  Glass  Clock,  the  business 
seemed  to  revive  in  all  the  neighboring  towns,  but  more  especially  in 
Plymouth  and  Bristol.  Both  Mr.  Terry  and  Mr.  Thomas,  did  and  said 
much  in  disparagement  of  my  new  invention,  and  tried  to  discourage  the 
pedlars  from  buying  of  me,  but  they  did  as  men  do  now-a-days,  buy  where 
they  can  do  the  best  and  make  the  most  money.  This  new  clock  was 
liked  very  much  in  the  southern  market.  I  have  heard  of  some  of  these 
being  sold  in  Mississippi  and  Lousianna  as  high  as  one  hundred  and  one 
hundred  and  fifteen  dollars,  and  a  great  many  at  ninety  dollars,  which 
was  a  good  advance  on  the  first  cost.  Mr.  Thomas  gave  out  that  he  would 
not  make  them  any  how,  he  did  not  want  to  follow  Jerome,  but  did  finally 
come  to  it,  making  only  a  few  at  first,  but  running  them  down  in  the  mean 


22  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

time  and  praising  his  old  case.  He  finally  gave  up  making  the  Scroll  Top 
and  made  my  new  kind  altogether. 

Samuel  Terry,  a  brother  of  Eli,  came  to  Bristol  about  this  time,  and 
commenced  making  this  kind  of  clock. 

Several  others  began  to  make  them-Geo.  Mitchell  and  his  brother 
in-law  Rollin  Atkins  went  into  it,  also  Riley  Whiting  of  Winsted.  The 
business  increased  very  rapidly  between  1827  and  1837.  During  these 
ten  years  Jeromes  and  Darrow  made  more  than  any  other  company. 
The  two  towns  of  Plymouth  and  Bristol  grew  and  improved  very  rapidly; 
many  new  houses  were  built,  and  every  thing  looked  prosperous. 

In  1831,  a  new  church  was  built  in  Bristol,  and,  it  is  said,  through  the 
introduction  of  this  Bronze  Looking  Glass  Clock.  Jeromes  and  Darrow 
paid  one-third  of  the  cost  of  its  erection.  The  writer  obtained  every 
dollar  of  the  subscription.  The  Hon.  Tracy  Peck  and  myself  first  started 
this  project,  which  ended  in  building  this  fine  church  which  was  finished 
and  dedicated  in  August,  1832.  The  Rev.  David  Lewis  Parmelee  preached 
the  dedication  sermon,  and  was  the  settled  minister  there.  I  was  greatly 
interested  in  his  preaching  for  ten  years.  He  has  for  the  last  nineteen 
years  preached  at  South  Farms  now  the  town  of  Morris.  This  Mr. 
Parmelee  was  a  merchant  till  he  was  thirty  years  old,  and  was  then  con 
verted  in  some  mysterious  manner,  as  St.  Paul  was,  and  left  his  business 
to  preach  the  gospel.  He  proved  to  be  one  of  the  soundest  preachers  in 
the  land,  and  I  have  no  doubt  but  he  will  be  one  of  the  bright  and  shining 
lights  in  heaven.  Oh!  what  happy  days  I  saw  during  those  ten  years, 
little  dreaming  of  the  great  troubles  that  were  before  me,  or  that  I  should 
experience  in  after  life,  which  are  now  resting  so  heavily  upon  me,  many 
times  seeming  greater  than  I  can  bear.  But  such  is  life. 

About  this  time,  also,  Chauncey  and  Lawson  C.  Ives,  two  highly 
respectable  men,  built  a  factory  in  Bristol  for  the  purpose  of  making  an 
eight  day  brass  clock.  This  clock  was  invented  by  Joseph  Ives,  a  brother 
of  Chauncey,  and  sold  for  about  twenty  dollars.  The  manufacture  of 
these  was  carried  on  very  successfully  for  a  few  years  by  them,  but  in 
1836,  their  business  was  closed  up,  they  having  made  about  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  Soon  after  this,  in  1837,  came  the  great  panic  and 
break-down  of  business  which  extended  all  over  the  country.  Clock 
makers  and  almost  every  one  else  stopped  business.  I  should  mention 
that  another  company  made  the  eight  day  brass  clock  previous  to  1837, 
Erastus  and  Harvey  Case  and  John  Birge.  Their  clocks  were  retailed 
mostly  in  the  southern  market.  They  made  perhaps  four  thousand  a 
year.  The  Ives  Co.,  made  about  two  thousand,  but  both  went  out  of 
business  in  1837,  and  it  was  thought  that  clock  making  was  about  done 
with  in  Conn. 


LIFE    OF    CHAUNCEY   JEROME.  23 

The  third  chapter,  as  I  have  divided  it,  was  now  closing  up.  Wood 
clocks  were  good  for  time,  but  it  was  a  slow  job  to  properly  make  them, 
and  difficult  to  procure  wood  just  right  for  wheels  and  plates,  and  it  took 
a  whole  year  to  season  it.  Xo  factor}'  had  made  over  Ten  thousand  in  a 
year;  they  were  always  classed  with  wooden  nutmegs  and  wooden  cucum 
ber  seeds,  and  could  not  be  introduced  into  other  countries  to  any  ad 
vantage.  But  this  was  not  the  only  trouble;  being  on  water  long  as  they 
would  have  to  be,  would  swell  the  wood  of  the  wheels  and  ruin  the  clock. 
Here  then  we  had  the  eight  day  brass  clock  costing  about  twenty  dollars; 
the  idea  had  always  been  that  a  brass  clock  must  be  an  eight  day,  and 
all  one  day  should  be  of  wood,  and  the  plan  of  a  brass  one  day  had  never 
been  thought  of. 

In  1835,  the  southern  people  were  greatly  opposed  to  the  Yankee 
pedlars  coming  into  their  states,  especially  the  clock  pedlars,  and  the 
licences  were  raised  so  high  by  their  Legislatures  that  it  amounted  to 
almost  a  prohibition.  Their  laws  were  that  any  goods  made  in  their 
own  States  could  be  sold  without  licencse.  Therefore  clocks  to  be  profit 
able  must  be  made  in  those  states.  Chauncey  and  Noble  Jerome  started 
a  factory  in  Richmond  Ya.,  making  the  cases  and  parts  at  Bristol, 
Connecticut,  and  packing  them  with  the  dials,  glass  &c.  We  shipped 
them  to  Richmond  and  took  along  workmen  to  put  them  together.  The 
people  were  highly  pleased  with  the  idea  of  having  clocks  all  made  in 
their  State.  The  old  planters  would  tell  the  pedlars  they  meant  to  go  to 
Richmond  and  see  the  wonderful  machinery  there  must  be  to  produce 
such  articles  and  would  no  doubt  have  thought  the  tools  we  had  there 
were  sufficient  to  make  a  clock.  We  carried  on  this  kind  of  business  for 
two  or  three  years  and  did  very  well  at  it,  though  it  was  unpleasant. 
Every  one  knew  it  was  all  a  humbug  trying  to  stop  the  pedlars  from 
coming  to  their  State.  We  removed  from  Richmond  to  Hamburg,  S.  C., 
and  manufactured  in  the  same  way.  This  was  in  1835  and  '36. 

There  was  another  company  doing  the  same  kind  of  business  at  Augusta, 
Geo.,  by  the  name  Case,  Dyer,  Wadsworth  &  Co.,  and  Seth  Thomas  was 
making  the  cases  and  movements  for  them.  The  hard  times  came  down 
on  us  and  we  really  thought  that  clocks  would  no  longer  be  made.  Our 
firm  thought  we  could  make  them  if  any  body  could,  but  like  the  others 
felt  discouraged  and  disgusted  with  the  whole  business  as  it  was  then. 
I  am  sure  that  I  had  lost,  from  1821  to  this  time,  more  than  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  and  felt  very  much  discouraged  in  consequence.  Our 
company  had  a  good  deal  of  unsettled  business  in  Virginia  and  South 
Carolina,  and  I  started  in  the  fall  of  1837  for  those  places.  Arriving  at 
Richmond,  I  had  a  strong  notion  of  going  into  the  marl  business.  I  had 
been  down  into  Kent  county,  the  summer  before,  where  I  saw  great 
mountains  of  this  white  marl  composed  of  shells  of  clams  and  oysters 


24  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

white  as  chalk.  I  had  sent  one  vessel  load  of  this  to  Xew  Haven  the 
year  before.  At  Richmond  I  was  looking  after  our  old  accounts,  settling 
up,  collecting  notes  and  picking  up  some  scattered  clocks. 

One  night  1  took  one  of  these  clocks  into  my  room  and  placing  it  on 
the  table,  left  a  light  burning  near  it  and  went  to  bed.  While  thinking 
over  my  business  troubles  and  disappointments,  1  could  not  help  feeling 
very  much  depressed.  I  said  to  myself  I  will  not  give  up  yet,  I  know 
more  about  the  clock  business  than  anything  else.  That  minute  I  was 
looking  at  the  wood  clock  on  the  table  and  it  came  into  my  mind  instantly 
that  there  could  be  a  cheap  one  day  brass  clock  that  would  take  the  place 
of  the  wood  clock.  1  at  once  began  to  figure  on  it;  the  case  would  cost  no 
more,  the  dials,  glass,  and  weights  and  other  fixtures  would  be  the  same, 
and  the  size  could  be  reduced.  I  lay  awake  nearly  all  night  thinking  this 
new  thing  over.  I  knew  there  was  a  fortune  in  it.  Many  a  sensible  man 
has  since  told  me  that  if  I  could  have  secured  the  sole  right  for  making 
them  for  ten  years,  I  could  easily  have  made  a  million  of  dollars.  The 
more  I  looked  at  this  new  plan,  the  better  it  appeared.  My  business  took 
me  to  South  Carolina  before  I  could  return  home.  I  had  now  enough  to 
think  of  day  and  night;  this  one  day  brass  clock  was  constantly  on  my 
mind;  I  was  drawing  plans  and  contriving  how  they  could  be  made  best. 
I  traveled  most  of  the  way  from  Richmond  by  stage.  Arriving  at  Au 
gusta,  Geo.,  I  called  on  the  Connecticut  men  who  were  finishing  wood 
clocks  for  the  market,  and  told  Mr.  Dyer  the  head  man,  that  1  had  got 
up,  or  could  get  up  something  when  1  got  home  that  would  run  out  all  the 
wood  clocks  in  the  country,  Thomas's  and  all;  he  laughed  at  me  quite 
heartily.  I  told  him  that  was  all  right,  and  asked  him  to  come  to  Bristol 
when  he  \vent  home  and  I  would  show  h'm  something  that  would  astonish 
him.  He  promised  that  he  would,  and  during  the  next  summer  when  he 
called  at  my  place,  I  showed  him  a  shelf  full  of  them  running,  which  he 
acknowledged  to  be  the  best  he  had  ever  seen. 

I  arrived  home  from  the  south  the  28th  of  January,  and  told  my  brother 
who  was  a  first-rate  clock  maker  what  I  had  been  thinking  about  since  I 
had  been  gone.  He  was  much  pleased  with  my  plan,  thought  it  a  first 
rate  idea,  and  said  he  would  go  right  to  work  and  get  up  the  movement, 
which  he  perfected  in  a  short  time  so  that  it  was  the  best  clock  that  had 
ever  been  made  in  this  or  any  other  country.  There  have  been  more  of 
this  same  kind  manufactured  than  of  any  other  in  the  United  States. 
What  I  originated  that  night  on  my  bed  in  Richmond,  has  given  work 
to  thousands  of  men  yearly  for  more  than  twenty  years,  built  up  the 
largest  manufactories  in  New  England,  and  put  more  than  a  million  of 
dollars  into  the  pockets  of  the  brass  makers, — "but  there  is  not  one  of 
them  that  remembers  Joseph." 


LIFE    OF    CHAUNCEY   JEROME.  25 

CHAPTER  V. 

SUCCESS  OF  THE  NEW  INVENTION. — -INTRODUCTION  OF  CLOCKS  IN  ENGLAND. 

— TERRY   FAMILY,   ETC. 

\Ye  went  on  very  prosperously  making  the  new  clock,  and  it  was 
admired  by  every  body.  In  the  year  1839,  some  of  my  neighbors  and  a 
few  of  my  leading  workmen  had  a  great  desire  to  get  into  the  same  kind 
of  business.  We  knew  competition  amongst  Yankees  was  almost  sure  to 
kill  business  and  proposed  to  have  them  come  in  with  us  and  ^ave  a 
share  of  the  profits.  An  arrangement  to  this  effect  was  made  and  we 
went  on  in  this  way  until  the  fall  of  1840.  I  found  they  were  much 
annoyance  and  bother  to  me,  and  so  bought  them  all  out,  but  had  to 
give  them  one  hundred  per  cent,  for  the  use  of  their  money.  Some  of 
them  had  not  paid  in  anything,  but  I  had  to  pay  them  the  same  profits 
I  did  the  rest,  to  get  rid  of  them.  One  man  had  put  in  three  thousand 
dollars  for  which  I  paid  him  six  thousand.  I  also  bought  out  my  brother 
Noble  Jerome,  who  had  been  in  company  with  me  for  a  long  time,  and 
carried  on  the  whole  business  alone,  which  seemed  to  be  rapidly  im 
proving. 

I  made  in  1841,  thirty-five  thousand  dollars  clear  profits.  Men  would 
come  and  deposit  money  with  me  before  their  orders  were  finished.  This 
successful  state  of  things  set  all  ot  the  wood  clock  makers  half  crazy,  and 
they  went  into  it  one  after  another  as  fast  as  they  could,  and  of  course 
run  down  the  price  very  fast — "Yankee-like."  I  had  been  thinking  for 
two  or  three  years  of  introducing  my  clocks  into  England,  and  had 
availed  myself  of  every  opportunity  to  get  posted  on  that  subject;  when 
I  met  Englishmen  in  Xew  York  and  other  places,  I  would  try  to  find  out 
by  them  what  the  prospects  would  be  for  selling  Yankee  clocks  in  their 
country.  I  ascertained  that  there  were  no  cheap  metal  clocks  used  or 
known  there,  the  only  cheap  timepiece  they  had  was  a  Dutch  hang-up 
wood  clock. 

In  1842,  I  determined  to  make  the  venture  of  sending  a  consignment 
of  brass  clocks  to  Old  England.  I  made  a  bargain  with  Epaphroditus 
Peck,  a  very  talented  young  man  of  Bristol,  a  son  of  Hon.  Tracy  Peck, 
to  take  them  out,  and  sent  my  son  Chauncey  Jerome,  Jr.  with  him.  All 
of  the  first  cargo  consisted  of  the  O.  G.  one  day  brass  clocks.  As  soon  as 
it  was  known  by  the  neighboring  clock-makers,  they  laughed  at  me,  and 
ridiculed  the  idea  of  sending  clocks  to  England  w^here  labor  was  so  cheap. 
They  said  that  they  never  would  interfere  with  Jerome  in  that  visionary 
project,  but  no  sooner  had  I  got  them  well  introduced,  after  spending 
thousands  of  dollars  to  effect  it,  than  they  had  all  forgotten  what  they 


26  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

said  about  my  folly,  and  one  after  another  sent  over  the  same  goods  to 
compete  with  me  and  run  down  the  price.  As  I  have  said  before,  wood 
clocks  could  never  have  been  exported  to  Europe  from  this  country,  for 
many  reasons.  They  would  have  been  laughed  at,  and  looked  upon 
with  suspicion  as  coming  from  the  wooden  nutmeg  country,  and  classed 
as  the  same.  They  could  not  endure  a  long  voyage  across  the  water 
without  swelling  the  parts  and  rendering  them  useless  as  time-keepers; 
experience  had  taught  us  this,  as  many  wood  clocks  on  a  passage  to  the 
southern  market,  had  been  rendered  unfit  for  use  for  this  very  reason. 
Metal  clocks  can  be  sent  any  where  without  injury.  Millions  have  been 
sent  to  Europe,  Asia,  South  America,  Australia,  Palestine,  and  in  fact, 
to  every  part  of  the  world;  and  millions  of  dollars  brought  into  this 
country  by  this  means,  and  I  think  it  not  unfair  to  claim  the  honor  of 
inventing  and  introducing  this  low-price  time-piece  which  has  given 
employment  to  so  many  of  our  countrymen,  and  has  also,  been  so  useful, 
to  the  world  at  large.  No  family  is  so  poor  but  that  they  can  have  a 
time-piece  which  is  both  useful  and  ornamental.  They  can  be  found  in 
every  civilized  portion  of  the  globe.  Meeting  a  sea  captain  one  day,  he 
told  me  that  on  landing  at  the  lonely  island  of  St.  Helena,  the  first  thing 
that  he  noticed  on  entering  a  house,  was  my  name  on  the  face  of  a  brass 
clock.  Many  years  ago  a  missionary  (Mr.  Ruggles,)  at  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  told  me  that  he  had  one  of  my  clocks  in  his  house,  the  first  one 
that  had  ever  been  on  the  islands.  Travelers  have  mentioned  seeing 
them  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  in  many  parts  of  Egypt,  and  in  fact,  every 
where,  which  accounts  could  not  but  be  interesting  and  gratifying  to  me. 
It  was  a  long  and  tedious  undertaking  to  introduce  my  first  cargo  in 
England.  Mr.  Peck  and  my  son  wrote  me  a  great  many  times  the  first 
year,  that  they  never  could  be  sold  there,  the  prejudice  against  American 
manufactures  was  so  great  that  they  would  not  buy  them.  Although 
very  much  discouraged,  I  kept  writing  them  to  'stick  to  it.'  They  were 
once  turned  out  of  a  store  in  London  and  threatened  if  they  offered  their 
" Yankee  clocks"  again  to  the  English  people  "who  made  clocks  for  the 
world;"  "they  were  good  for  nothing  or  they  could  not  be  offered  so 
cheap."  They  were  finally  introduced  in  this  way;  the  young  men 
persuaded  a  merchant  to  take  two  into  his  store  for  sale.  He  reluctantly 
gave  his  consent,  saying  he  did  not  believe  they  would  run  at  all;  they 
set  the  two  running  and  left  the  price  of  them.  On  calling  the  next  day 
to  see  how  they  were  getting  along,  and  what  the  London  merchant 
thought  of  them,  they  were  surprised  to  find  them  both  gone.  On  asking 
what  had  become  of  them,  they  were  told  that  two  men  came  in  and 
liked  their  looks  and  bought  them.  The  merchant  said  he  did  not  think 
any  one  would  ever  buy  them,  but  told  them  they  might  bring  in  four 
more;  "I  will  see"  he  says,  "if  I  can  sell  any  more  of  your  Yankee  clocks." 


LIFE    OF    CHAUNCEY    JEROME.  27 

They  carried  them  in  and  calling  the  next  day,  found  them  all  gone.  The 
merchant  then  told  them  to  bring  in  a  dozen.  These  went  off  in  a  short 
time,  and  not  long  after,  this  same  merchant  bought  two  hundred  at 
once,  and  other  merchants  began  to  think  they  could  make  some  money 
on  these  Yankee  clocks  and  the  business  began  to  improve  very  rapidly. 
There  are  always  men  enough  who  are  ready  to  enter  into  a  business  after 
it  is  started  and  looks  favorable.  A  pleasing  incident  occurred  soon  after 
we  first  started.  The  Revenue  laws  of  England  are  (or  were,  at  that 
time)  that  the  owner  of  property  passing  through  the  Custom-house  shall 
put  such  a  price  on  his  goods  as  he  pleases,  knowing  that  the  government 
officers  have  a  right  to  take  the  property  by  adding  ten  per  cent,  to  the 
invoiced  price. 

I  had  always  told  my  young  men  over  there  to  put  a  fair  price  on  the 
clocks,  which  they  did;  but  the  officers  thought  they  put  them  altogether 
too  low,  so  they  made  up  their  minds  that  they  would  take  a  lot,  and 
seized  one  ship-load,  thinking  we  would  put  the  prices  of  the  next  cargo 
at  higher  rates.  They  paid  the  cash  for  this  cargo,  which  made  a  good 
sale  for  us.  A  few  days  after,  another  invoice  arrived  which  our  folks 
entered  at  the  same  prices  as  before;  but  they  were  again  taken  by  the 
officers  paying  us  cash  and  ten  per  cent,  in  addition,  which  was  very 
satisfactory  to  us.  On  the  arrival  of  the  third  lot,  they  began  to  think 
they  had  better  let  the  Yankees  sell  their  own  goods  and  passed  them 
through  unmolested,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  we  could  make 
clocks  much  better  and  cheaper  than  their  own  people.  Their  perform 
ance  has  been  considered  a  first-rate  joke  to  say  the  least.  There  will,  in 
all  probability,  be  millions  of  clocks  sold  in  that  country,  and  we  are  the 
people  who  will  furnish  all  Europe  with  all  their  common  cheap  ones  as 
long  as  time  lasts. 

All  of  the  spring  and  eight  day  clocks  have  grown  out  of  the  one  day 
weight  clock.  There  can  now  be  as  good  an  eight  day  clock  bought  for 
three  or  four  dollars,  as  could  be  had  for  eighteen  or  twenty  dollars  before 
I  got  up  the  one  day  clock.  Mr.  Peck,  who  went  to  England  with  my  son, 
died  in  London  on  the  20th  September,  1857;  my  son  died  in  this  country 
in  July,  1853:  so  they  have  gone  the  way  of  all  the  earth,  and  I  shall  have 
to  follow  them  soon.  They  were  instrumental  in  laying  the  foundation 
of  a  large  and  prosperous  business  which  is  now  being  successfully  carried 
on.  The  duties  on  clocks  to  England  have  been  recently  removed, 
which  will  result  to  the  advantage  of  persons  now  in  the  business.  The 
many  difficulties  which  we  had  to  battle  and  contend  with  are  all  over 
come.  When  I  invented  this  one  day  brass  clock,  I  for  the  first  time  put 
on  the  zinc  dial  which  is  now  universally  used,  and  is  a  great  improvement 
on  the  wood  dial,  both  in  appearance  and  in  cost.  This  simple  idea  has 
been  of  immense  value  to  all  clock-makers. 


28  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

In  the  year  1821,  when  I  moved  to  Bristol,  no  one  was  making  clocks 
in  that  town ;  the  business  had  all  passed  away  from  there  and  was  carried 
on  in  Plymouth.  The  little  shop  I  had  put  up  had  no  machinery  in  it  at 
that  time.  I  soon  began  to  make  so  many  cases  that  I  wanted  some 
better  way  to  get  my  veneers  than  to  saw  them  by  hand.  I  found  a 
small  building  on  a  stream  some  distance  from  my  shop  which  I  secured, 
with  the  privilege  of  putting  a  circular  saw  in  the  upper  part,  but  which 
I  could  not  use  till  night — the  power  being  wanted  for  the  other  ma 
chinery  during  the  day.  I  have  worked  there  a  great  many  nights  till 
twelve  o'clock  and  even  two  in  the  morning,  sawing  veneers  for  my  men 
to  use  the  next  day.  I  sawed  my  hand  nearly  off  one  night  when  alone 
at  this  old  mill,  and  was  so  faint  by  the  loss  of  blood  that  I  could  hardly 
reach  home.  I  always  worked  hard  myself  and  managed  in  the  most 
economical  manner  possible.  In  1825,  we  built  a  small  factory  on  the 
stream  below  the  shop  where  I  sawed  my  veneers  two  or  three  years 
before,  but  there  was  no  road  to  it  or  bridge  across  the  stream.  I  had 
crossed  it  for  years  on  a  pole,  running  the  risk  many  times  when  the 
water  was  high,  of  being  drowned,  but  it  seems  1  was  not  to  die  in  that 
way,  but  to  live  to  help  others  and  make  a  slave  of  myself  for  them.  In 
1826,  we  petitioned  the  town  to  lay  out  a  road  by  our  factory  and  build 
a  bridge,  which  was  seriously  objected  to.  We  finally  told  them  that  if 
they  would  lay  out  the  road,  we  would  build  the  bridge  and  pay  for  one 
half  of  the  land  for  the  road,  which,  after  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  was 
agreed  to,  and  proved  to  be  of  great  benefit  to  the  town.  Our  business 
was  growing  very  rapidly  and  a  number  of  houses  were  built  up  along  the 
new  road  and  about  our  factory.  I  should  here  mention  that  Mr.  Eli 
Terry,  Jr.,  when  I  had  got  the  Bronze  Looking-Glass  Clock  well  a  going, 
moved  from  Plymouth  Hollow  two  miles  east  of  Plymouth  Centre,  (now 
the  village  of  Terryville,)  where  he  built  another  factory  and  went  into 
business.  His  father  retiring  about  this  time,  he  took  all  of  his  old 
customers.  He  was  a  good  business  man  and  made  money  very  fast. 
He  was  taken  sick  and  died  when  about  forty  years  old,  leaving  an  estate 
of  about  $75,000.  His  brother,  Silas  B.  Terry,  is  now  living,  a  Christian 
gentleman,  as  wrell  as  a  scientific  clock-maker,  but  he  has  not  succeeded 
so  well  as  his  brother  in  making  money.  Henry  Terry  of  Plymouth,  who 
is  another  son  of  Mr.  Eli  Terry,  was  engaged  in  the  clock  business  thirty 
years  ago,  but  left  it  for  the  woolen  business.  I  think  that  he  is  sorry 
that  he  did  not  continue  making  clocks.  He  is  a  man  of  great  intelligence 
and  understands  the  principles  of  a  right  tariff  as  well  as  any  man  in 
Connecticut.  His  father  was  a  great  man,  a  natural  philosopher,  and 
almost  an  Eli  Whitney  in  mechanical  ingenuity.  If  he  had  turned  his 
mind  towards  a  military  profession,  he  would  have  made^another  General 
Scott,  or  toward  politics,  another  Jefferson;  or,  if  he  had  noHiappened  to 


LIFE    OF    CHAUNCEY   JEROME.  29 

have  gone  to  the  town  of  Plymouth,  I  do  not  believe  there  would  ever  have 
been  a  clock  made  there.  He  was  the  great  originator  of  wood  clock- 
making  by  machinery  in  Connecticut.  I  like  to  see  every  man  have  his 
due.  Thomas  and  many  others  who  have  made  their  fortunes  out  of  his 
ingenuity,  were  very  willing  to  talk  against  him,  for  they  must,  of  course, 
act  out  human  nature.  Seth  Thomas  was  in  many  respects  a  first-rate 
man.  He  never  made  any  improvements  in  manufacturing;  his  great 
success  was  in  money  making.  He  always  minded  his  own  business,  was 
very  industrious,  persevering,  honest,  his  word  was  as  good  as  his  note, 
and  he  always  determined  to  make  a  good  article  and  please  his  customers. 
He  had  several  sons  who  are  said  to  be  smart  business  men. 

I  knew  Mrs.  Thomas  well  when  I  was  a  boy,  fourteen  years  old.  She 
is  one  of  the  best  of  women,  and  is  now  the  widow  of  one  of  the  richest 
men  in  the  state.  The  families  of  Terry  and  Thomas  are  extensively 
known,  throughout  the  United  States.  Mr.  Thomas  died  two  years  ago 
at  the  age  of  seventy-five.  He  was  born  in  West  Haven,  about  four  miles 
from  New  Haven,  and  learned  the  joiners'  trade  in  Wolcott,  and  worked 
in  that  region  and  in  Plymouth  five  or  six  years,  building  houses  and 
barns.  I  waited  on  him  when  he  built  a  barn  in  Plymouth,  carrying 
boards  and  shingles.  He  soon  after  went  into  the  clock  business  in  which 
he  remained  during  life.  Mr.  Terry  died  in  1853,  at  the  advanced  age  of 
eighty-one. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

OPERATIONS   OF   FRANK  MERRILLS A   SAD  HISTORY. — -BUSINESS  TROUBLES, 

ETC. 

In  the  fall,  of  the  year  1840,  a  young  man  by  the  name  of  Franklin 
Merrills  was  introduced  to  me  as  one  the  smartest  and  likeliest  business 
men  in  the  whole  country.  It  was  said  that  he  could  trade  in  horses, 
cattle,  sheep,  wool,  flour,  or  any  thing  else,  and  make  money.  He  be 
longed  to  one  of  the  first  families  in  Litchfield  county.  I  thought  by  his 
appearance  and  recommendations  that  he  would  be  a  good  customer  for 
me  and  I  sold  him  a  thousand  dollars  worth  of  clocks  to  begin  with.  He 
gave  me  his  four  months'  note  which  was  promptly  paid  when  due.  He 
hired  three  pedlars  and  went  with  them  into  Dutchess  county  New  York, 
where,  they  sold  the  clocks  very  fast.  The  one-day  O.  G.  brass  clock  was 
a  new  thing  to  them,  first-rate  for  time,  and  they  readily  went  off  for 
fifteen  and  twenty  dollars  apiece.  I  sold  them  to  him  for  six  dollars 
apiece,  and  it  appeared,  at  this  rate,  that  he  could  make  a  fortune  in  a 
few  years.  His  credit  became  established  for  anv  amount,  and  he  soon 


30  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

began  to  want  clocks  about  twice  as  fast  as  at  first.  A  man  by  the  name 
of  Bates  transported  them  for  him  in  a  large  two-horse  \vagon  from  my 
place  to  Washington  Hollow,  about  twelve  miles  east  of  Poughkeepsie. 
Mr.  Bates  lived  in  the  same  neighborhood  where  Frank  was  brought  up 
in  New  Hartford,  Conn.  Every  week  or  two  he  would  go  out  with  a 
load.  Things  moved  on  in  this  seemingly  prosperous  way  for  some  time. 
One  day  I  accidental!}"  heard  that  parties  in  Xew  York  with  whom  I  had 
never  dealt,  were  selling  my  clocks  at  very  reduced  prices,  and  I  began  to 
mistrust  that  Frank  had  been  selling  to  them  at  less  than  cost.  On  seeing 
him,  he  told  me  I  was  greatly  mistaken  and  smoothed  down  the  matter 
so  that  it  appeared  satisfactory  to  me.  He  had  at  this  time  got  into  debt 
about  eighteen  thousand  dollars.  One  day  he  went  to  Hartford  and 
bought  seven  thousand  dollars  worth  of  cotton  cloth  from  a  shrewd 
house  in  that  city,  telling  them  a  very  fine  story  that  he  had  a  vessel 
which  would  sail  for  South  America  the  next  day,  and  that  the  cloth 
must  go  down  immediately  on  the  boat.  He  told  them  who  his  father 
was,  and  promised  to  bring  his  endorsement  in  a  few  days,  which  was 
satisfactory  to  them,  and  they  let  him  have  the  goods.  But  the  paper 
did  not  come.  One  of  the  firm  went  to  Xew  York  and  there  found  some 
of  the  goods  in  an  Auction  store,  and  a  part  of  them  sold.  He  got  out  a 
writ  and  arrested  Frank.  His  father  was  sent  for,  and  settled  this  matter 
satisfactorily.  I  thought  I  would  go  up  to  New  Hartford  and  see  Capt. 
Merrills  about  Frank's  affairs — he  told  me  all  about  them,  and  said  he 
had  been  looking  over  Frank's  business  very  thoroughly,  and  found  that 
a  large  amount  was  owing  him  and  that  Frank  had  shown  him  on  his 
book  invoices  of  a  large  amount  of  good  that  he  had  shipped  to  South 
America,  besides  several  large  accounts  and  notes — one  of  eight  thousand 
dollars.  He  told  me  that  he  thought  after  paying  me  and  others  whom 
he  owed,  there  would  be  as  much  as  twenty  thousand  dollars  left.  This 
was  very  satisfactory  to  me,  though  I  knew  nothing  about  the  cotton 
cloth  speculation  at  that  time.  If  I  had,  it  would  have  saved  me  a  great 
deal  of  trouble.  This  was  in  February,  1844.  There  was  a  note  of  his 
lying  over,  unpaid,  in  the  Exchange  Bank  in  Hartford,  of  two  thousand 
dollars.  I  had  moved  a  few  weeks  before  this  to  Xew  Haven.  In  the 
latter  part  of  February,  I  went  down  to  Xew  York  to  see  if  he  could  let 
me  have  the  two  thousand  to  take  up  the  note;  he  said  he  could  in  a  day 
or  two.  I  told  him  I  would  stay  till  Saturday.  On  that  day  he  was  not 
able  to  pay  me,  but  would  certainly  get  it  Monday,  and  urged  me  to  stay 
over,  which  I  did.  He  took  me  into  a  large  establishment  with  him,  and, 
as  I  have  since  had  reason  to  believe,  talked  with  parties  who  were 
interested  with  him,  about  consigning  to  them  a  large  quantity  of  tallow, 
beeswax  and  wool  which  he  owned  in  the  West.  He  told  me  that  he  had 
some  trouble  with  his  business,  and  that  all  he  wanted  was  a  little  help; 


LIFE  OF  CHAUNCEV  JEROME.  31 

he  said  he  had  a  great  deal  of  property  in  New  York  State,  and  that  if 
he  could  raise  some  money,  he  could  make  a  very  profitable  speculation 
on  a  lot  of  wool  which  he  knew  about.  He  told  me  that  if  I  would  give 
him  my  notes  and  acceptances  to  a  certain  amount,  he  \vould  secure  me 
with  the  obligations  of  Henry  Martin,  one  of  the  best  farmers  there  was 
in  Dutchess  county.  He  also  gave  the  names  of  several  merchants  in 
Xew  York  who  were  acquainted  with  the  rich  farmers.  I  called  on  them 
and  all  spoke  very  highly  of  him.  I  thought,  there  could  be  no  great 
risk  in  doing  it,  for  my  confidence  in  Frank  was  very  great.  I  thought, 
of  course,  this  would  insure  my  claim  of  eighteen  thousand  dollars,  but 
it  eventual!}"  proved  to  be  a  deep-laid  plot  to  swindle  me.  Frank  had 
no  notes  or  accounts  that  were  of  any  value;  they  were  all  bogus  and 
got  up  to  deceive  his  poor  old  tather  and  others.  He  had  no  property 
shipped  to  South  America.  It  was  all  found  out,  when  too  late,  that  he 
had  ruined  himself  by  gambling  and  bad  company,  often  losing  a  thousand 
dollars  in  one  night.  He  was  arrested,  taken  before  the  Grand  Jury  of 
Xew  York,  committed  to  jail  tor  swindling,  and  died  in  a  few  months 
after.  He  ruined  his  father,  who  was  a  very  cautious  man,  ruined  three 
rich  farmers  of  Dutchess  county,  and  came  very  near  ruining  me.  It  was 
a  sad  history  and  mortifying  to  a  great  many.  I  was  advised  by  my 
counsel,  Seth  P.  Staples  of  New  York,  to  contest  the  whole  thing  in  lawr. 
I  had  five  or  six  suits  on  my  hands  at  one  time,  and  it  was  nine  years 
before  I  was  clear  from  them.  What  he  owed  me  for  clocks,  and  what  I 
had  to  pay  on  notes  and  acceptances  and  the  expenses  of  law,  amounted 
to  more  tha,n  Forty  Thousand  Dollars.  Xine  years  of  wakeful  nights  of 
trouble,  grief  and  mortification,  for  this  profligate  young  man!  There 
never  was  a  man  more  honest  than  I  was  in  my  intentions  to  help  him 
in  his  troubles,  and  I  am  quite  sure  no  man  got  so  badly  swindled.  Every 
clock  maker  in  the  state  would  have  been  glad  to  have  sold  to  him  as  I 
did*.  This  young  man  was  well  brought  up,  but  bad  company  ruined  him 
and  others  with  him.  This  life  seems  to  be  full  of  trials.  In  latter  years  I 
have  remembered  what  an  old  man  often  told  me  when  a  boy.  "Chaun- 
cey,"  he  says,  "don't  you  know  there  are  a  thousand  troubles  and  diffi 
culties?"  I  told  him  I  did  not  know  there  were;  "well,"  he  says,  "you 
will  find  out  if  you  live  long  enough."  I  have  lived  long  enough  to  see 
ten  thousand  troubles,  and  have  found  out  that  the  saying  of  the  old 
man  is  true.  I  have  narrated  but  a  small  part  of  my  business  troubles 
in  this  brief  history.  One  of  the  most  trying  things  to  me  now,  is  to  see 
how  I  am  looked  upon  by  the  community  since  I  lost  my  property.  I 
never  was  any  better  when  I  owned  it  than  I  am  now,  and  never  behaved 
any  better.  But  how  different  is  the  feeling  towards  you,  when  your 
neighbors  can  make  nothing  more  out  of  you,  politically  or  pecuniarily. 
It  makes  no  difference  what,  or  ho\v  much  you  have  done  for  them 


32  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

heretofore,  you  are  passed  by  without  notice  now.  It  is  nil  money  and 
business,  business  and  money  which  make  the  man  now-a-days;  success 
is  every  thing,  and  it  makes  very  little  difference  how,  or  what  means  he 
uses  to  obtain  it.  How  many  we  see  every  day  that  have  ten  times  as 
much  property  as  they  will  ever  want,  who  will  do  any  thing  but  steal  to 
add  to  their  estate,  for  somebody  to  fight  about  when  they  are  dead.  I 
see  men  every  day  sixty  and  seventy  years  old,  building  up  and  pulling 
dowrn,  and  preparing,  as  one  might  reasonably  suppose,  to  live  here 
forever.  Where  will  they  be  in  a  few  years?  I  often  think  of  this.  My 
experience  has  been  great, — I  have  seen  many  a  man  go  up  and  then  go 
down,  and  many  persons  who,  but  a  few  years  ago,  were  surrounded  with 
honors  and  wealth,  have  passed  away.  The  saying  of  the  wise  man  is 
true — all  is  "vanity  of  vanities"  here  below.  It  is  now  a  time  of  great 
action  in  the  world  but  not  much  reflection. 

An  incident  of  my  boy-hood  has  just  come  into  my  mind.  When  an 
apprentice  boy,  I  was  at  work  with  my  "boss"  on  a  house  in  Torringford, 
very  near  the  residence  of  Rev.  Mr.  Mills,  the  father  of  Samuel  J.  Mills 
the  missionary.  This  was  in  1809,  fifty-one  years  ago.  This  young  man 
was  preparing  to  go  out  on  his  missionary  voyage.  How  wickedly  we  are 
taught  when  we  are  young!  I  thought  he  was  a  mean,  lazy  fellow.  He 
was  riding  out  every  day,  as  I  now  suppose,  to  add  to  his  strength.  An 
old  maid  lived  in  the  house  where  I  did  who  perfectly  hated  him,  calling 
him  a  good-for-nothing  fellow.  I,  of  course,  supposed  that  she  knew  all 
about  him  and  that  it  was  so.  I  am  a  friend  to  the  missionary  cause  and 
have  been  so  a  great  many  years.  How  many  times  that  wrong  impression 
which  I  got  from  that  old  maid  has  passed  through  my  mind,  and  how 
sorry  I  have  always  been  for  that  prejudice.  The  father  of  Samuel  J. 
Mills  was  a  very  eccentric  man  and  anecdotes  of  him  have  been  repeatedly 
told.  I  attended  his  church  the  summer  I  was  in  Torringford.  He  was 
the  strangest  man  I  ever  saw,  and  would  say  so  many  laughable  things 
in  his  sermon  that  it  was  next  to  impossible  for  me  to  keep  from  laughing 
out  loud.  His  congregation  was  composed  mostly  of  farmers,  and  in  hot 
weather  they  appeared  to  be  very  sleepy.  The  boys  would  sometimes 
play  and  make  a  good  deal  of  noise,  and  one  Sunday  he  stopped  in  the 
middle  of  his  sermon  and  looking  around  in  the  gallery,  said  in  a  loud 
voice,  "boys,  jf  you  don't  stop  your  noise  and  play,  you  will  certainly 
wake  your  parents  that  are  asleep  below!"  I  think  by  this  time  the  good 
people  were  all  awake;  it  amused  me  very  much  and  I  have  often  seen 
the  story  printed.  Many  a  time  when  I  think  of  Mr.  Mills,  an  anecdote 
of  him  comes  into  my  mind,  and  I  presume  that  a  great  many  have  heard 
of  the  same.  He  was  once  traveling  through  the  town  of  Litchfield  where 
there  was  at  that  time  a  famous  law  school.  Two  or  three  of  the  students 
were  walking  a  little  way  out  of  town,  when  who  should  they  see  coming 


LIFE    OF    CHAUXCEY    JEROME.  33 

along  the  road  but  old  Mr.  Mills.  They  supposing  him  to  be  some  old 
"codger,"  thought  they  would  have  a  little  fun  with  him.  When  they 
met  him  one  of  them  asked  him  "if  he  had  heard  the  news?"  "No,"  he 
says,  "what  is  it?"  "The  devil  is  dead."  "Is  he?"  says  Mr.  Mills,  "I 
am  sorry  for  you — poor  fatherless  children,  what  will  become  of  you?" 
I  understand  that  they  let  him  pass  without  further  conversation.  He 
was  a  good  man  and  looked  very  old  to  me,  as  he  always  wore  a  large 
white  wig. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

REMOVAL    TO    NEW    HAVEN. FACTORY   AT    BRISTOL    DESTROYED    BY   FIRE. • 

OTHER  TROUBLES,    ETC. 

In  the  winter  of  1844,  I  moved  to  the  city  of  Xew  Haven  with  the 
expectation  of  making  my  cases  there.  I  had  fitted  up  two  large  factories 
in  Bristol  lor  making  brass  movements  only  the  year  before,  and  had 
spared  no  pains  to  have  them  just  right.  My  factory  in  Xew  Haven 
was  fitted  up  expressly  for  making  the  cases  and  boxing  the  finished 
clocks;  the  movements  were  packed,  one  hundred  in  a  box,  and  sent  to 
Xew  Haven  where  they  were  cased  and  shipped.  Business  moved  on  very 
prosperously  for  about  one  year.  On  the  23d  of  April  1845,  about  the 
middle  of  the  afternoon  one  of  my  factories  in  Bristol  took  fire,  as  it  wras 
supposed  by  some  boys  playing  with  matches  at  the  back  side  of  the 
building,  which  set  fire  to  some  shavings  under  the  floor.  It  seemed 
impossible  to  put  it  out  and  it  proved  to  be  the  most  disastrous  fire  that 
ever  occurred  in  a  country  town.  There  were  seven  or  eight  buildings 
destroyed,  together  with  all  the  machinery  for  making  clocks,  which  was 
verY  costly  and  extensive.  There  were  somewhere  between  fifty  and 
seventy-five  thousand  brass  movements  in  the  works,  a  large  number  of 
them  finished,  and  worth  one  dollar  apiece.  The  loss  was  about  fifty 
thousand  dollars  and  the  insurance  only  ten  thousand.  This  was  another 
dark  day  for  me.  I  had  been  very  sick  all  winter  with  the  Typhus  fever, 
and  from  Christmas  to  April  had  not  been  able  to  go  to  Bristol.  On  the 
same  night  of  the  fire,  a  man  came  to  tell  me  of  the  great  loss.  I  was  in 
another  part  of  the  house  when  he  arrived  with  the  message,  but  my  wife 
did  not  think  it  prudent  to  inform  me  then,  but  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
night  she  introduced  a  conversation  that  was  calculated  to  prepare  my 
mind  for  the  sad  news,  and  in  a  cautious  manner  informed  me.  I  was 
at  that  time  in  the  midst  of  my  troubles  with  Frank  Merrills,  had  been 
sick  for  a  long  time,  and  at  one  time  was  not  expected  to  recover.  I  was 
not  then  able  to  attend  to  business  and  felt  much  depressed  on  that 


34  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

account.  It  was  hard  indeed  to  grapple  with  so  much  in  one  year,  but 
I  tried  to  make  the  best  of  it  and  to  feel  that  these  trials,  troubles  and 
disappointments  sent  upon  us  in  this  world,  are  blessings  in  disguise. 
Oh!  if  we  could  really  feel  this  to  be  so  in  all  of  our  troubles,  it  would  be 
well  for  us  in  this  world  and  better  in  the  next.  I  never  have  seen  the 
real  total  depravity  of  the  human  heart  show  itself  more  plainly  or  clearly 
than  it  did  when  my  factories  were  destroyed  by  fire.  An  envious  feeling 
had  always  been  exhibited  by  others  in  the  same  business  towards  me, 
and  those  who  had  made  the  most  out  of  my  improvements  and  had 
injured  my  reputation  by  making  an  inferior  article,  were  the  very  ones 
who  rejoiced  the  most  then.  Not  a  single  man  of  them  ever  did  or  could 
look  me  in  the  face  and  say  that  I  had  ever  injured  him.  This  feeling 
towards  me  was  all  because  I  was  in  their  way  and  my  clocks  at  that  time 
were  preferred  before  any  others.  They  really  thought  I  never  could 
start  again,  and  many  said  that  Jerome  would  never  make  any  more 
clocks.  I  learned  this  maxim  long  ago,  that  when  a  man  injures  another 
unreasonably,  to  act  out  human  nature  he  has  got  to  keep  on  misrepre 
senting  and  abusing  him  to  make  himself  appear  right  in  the  sight  ot  the 
world.  Soon  after  the  fire  in  Bristol  I  had  gained  my  strength  sufficiently 
to  go  ahead  again,  and  commenced  to  make  additions  to  my  case  factory 
in  New  Haven  (to  make  the  movements,)  and  by  the  last  of  June  was 
ready  to  commence  operations  on  the  brass  movements.  I  then  brought 
my  men  from  Bristol- — the  movement  makers —  and  a  noble  set  of  men 
as  ever  came  into  New  Haven  at  one  time.  Look  at  John  Woodruff;  he 
was  a  young  man  then  of  nineteen.  When  he  first  came  to  work  lor 
me  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  I  believed  that  he  was  destined  to  be  a  leading 
man.  He  is  now  in  Congress  (elected  for  the  second  time,)  honest,  kind, 
gentlemanly,  and  respected  in  Congress  and  out  of  Congress.  Look  at 
him,  young  men,  and  pattern  after  him,  you  can  see  in  his  case  what 
honest)',  industry  and  perseverance  will  accomplish. 

There  was  great  competition  in  the  business  for  several  years  after  1 
moved  to  New  Haven,  and  a  great  many  poor  clocks  made.  The  business 
of  selling  greatly  increased  in  New  York,  and  within  three  or  four  years 
after  I  introduced  the  one  day  brass  clock,  several  companies  in  Bristol 
and  Plymouth  commenced  making  them.  Most  of  them  manufactured 
an  inferior  article  of  movement,  but  found  sale  for  great  numbers  of 
them  to  parties  that  were  casing  clocks  in  New  York.  This  way  of 
managing  proved  to  be  a  great  damage  to  the  Connecticut  clock  makers. 
The  New  York  men  would  buy  the  poorest  movements  and  put  them 
into  cheap  O.  G.  cases  and  undersell  us.  Merchants  from  the  country, 
about  this  time,  began  to  buy  clocks  with  their  other  goods.  The)'  had 
heard  about  Jerome's  clocks  which  had  been  retailed  about  the  country, 
and  that  they  were  good  time-keepers,  and  would  enquire  for  my  clocks. 


LIFE    OF    CHAUNCEV    JEROME.  35 

These  Xe\v  York  men  would  say  that  they  were  agents  for  Jerome  and 
that  they  would  have  a  plenty  in  a  few  days,  and  make  a  sale  to  these 
merchants  of  Jerome  clocks.  They  would  then  go  to  the  Printers  and 
have  a  lot  of  labels  struck  off  and  put  into  their  cheap  clocks,  and  palm 
them  off  as  mine.  This  fraud  was  carried  on  for  several  years.  I  finally 
sued  some  of  these  blackleg  parties,  Samuels  &  Dunn,  and  Sperry  & 
Shaw,  and  found  out  to  my  satisfaction  that  they  had  used  more  than 
two  hundred  thousand  of  my  labels.  They  had  probably  sent  about  one 
hundred  thousand  to  Europe.  I  sued  Samuels  &  Dunn  for  twenty 
thousand  dollars  and  when  it  came  to  trial  I  proved  it  on  them  clearly. 
I  should  have  got  for  damages  fifteen  thousand  dollars,  had  it  not  been 
tor  one  of  the  jury.  One  was  for  giving  me  twenty  thousand,  another 
Eighteen,  and  the  others  down  to  seven  thousand  five  hundred.  This 
one  man  whom  I  speak  of,  was  opposed  to  giving  me  anything,  but  to 
settle  it,  went  as  high  as  two  thousand  three  hundred.  The  jury  thought 
that  I  had  a  great  deal  of  trouble  with  this  case  and  rather  than  have  it 
go  to  another  court,  had  to  come  to  this  man's  terms.  The  foreman  told 
me  afterwards  that  he  had  no  doubt  but  this  man  was  bought.  Xew  York 
is  a  hard  place  to  have  a  law  suit  in.  This  cheat  had  been  carried  on  for 
years,  both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe, — using  my  labels  and  selling 
poor  articles,  and  in  this  way  robbing  me  of  my  reputation  by  the  basest 
means.  Alter  this  Sperry,  who  was  in  company  with  Shaw,  had  been 
dead  a  short  time,  a  statement  was  published  in  the  Xew  York  papers 
that  this  Henry  Sperry  was  a  wonderful  man,  and  that  he  was  the  first 
man  who  went  to  England  with  Yankee  clocks.  After  I  had  sent  over 
my  two  men  and  had  got  my  clocks  well  introduced  and  had  them  there, 
more  than  a  year,  Sperry  &  Shaw,  hearing  that  we  were  doing  well  and 
selling  a  good  many,  thought  they  would  take  a  trip  to  Europe,  and  took 
along  perhaps  fifty  boxes  of  clocks.  I  have  since  heard  that  their  conduct 
was*  very  bad  while  there,  and  this  is  all  they  did  towards  introducing 
clocks.  There  is  no  one  who  can  claim  any  credit  of  introducing  American 
clocks  into  that  country  excepting  myself.  After  I  had  opened  a  store  in 
Xew  York,  we  did,  in  a  measure,  stop  these  men  from  using  my  labels. 

I  have  said  that  when  I  got  up  this  one  day  brass  clock  in  1838,  that 
the  lourth  chapter  in  the  Yankee  clock  business  had  commenced.  Perhaps 
Seth  Thomas  hated  as  bad  as  any  one  did  to  change  his  whole  business  of 
clock  making  for  the  second  time,  and  adopt  the  same  thing  that  I  had 
introduced.  He  never  invented  any  thing  ne\v,  and  would  now  probably 
have  been  making  the  same  old  hang-up  wood  clocks  of  fifty  years  ago, 
had  it  not  been  for  others  and  their  improvements.  He  was  highly 
incensed  at  me  because  I  was  the  means  of  his  having  to  change.  He 
hired  a  man  to  go  around  to  my  customers  and  offer  his  clocks  at  fifty 
and  seventy-five  cents  less  than  I  was  selling.  A  man  by  the  name  of 


36  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

J.  C.  Brown  carried  on  the  business  in  Bristol  a  long  time,  and  made  a  good 
many  fine  clocks,  but  finally  gave  up  the  business.  Elisha  Monross, 
Smith  &  Goodrich,  Brewster  &  Ingraham  were  all  in  the  same  business, 
but  have  given  it  up,  and  the  clock  making  of  Connecticut  is  now  mostly 
done  in  five  large  factories  in  different  parts  of  the  State,  about  which  I 
shall  speak  hereafter. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

FURTHER     IMPROVEMENTS     IN     CHEAP     TIME-KEEPERS. THE      PROCESS      OF 

CLOCK  MAKING. — 

It  would  be  no  doubt  interesting  to  a  great  many  to  know  what  im 
provements  have  been  made  in  manufacturing  clocks  during  the  past 
twenty  years.  I  recollect  I  paid  for  work  on  the  ().  G.  case  one  dollar 
and  seventy-five  cents;  for  the  same  work  in  1855,  I  paid  twenty  cents, 
and  many  other  things  in  the  same  proportion.  The  last  thing  that  I 
invented,  which  has  proved  to  be  of  great  usefulness,  was  the  one  day 
time-piece  that  can  be  sold  for  seventy-five  cents,  and  a  fair  profit  at 
that.  I  remember  well  when  I  was  about  to  give  up  the  job,  of  asking  the 
man  who  made  the  cases  for  the  factory  what  he  would  make  this  case 
for.  He  said  he  could  not  do  it  for  less  than  eight  cents,  I  told  him  I  knew 
he  could  make  them  for  five  cents,  and  do  well,  but  he  honestly  thought 
he  could  not.  He  was  to  make  two  thousand  per  month — twenty-tour 
thousand  a  year.  After  getting  the  work  well  systematized,  I  told  him 
if  he  could  not  make  them  at  that  price,  I  would  make  it  up  to  him  at 
the  end  of  the  year.  When  the  time  was  up,  he  told  me  that  it  was  the 
best  part  of  his  job,  and  that  he  would  make  them  the  next  year  tor  tour 
cents;  it  will  be  well  understood  that  this  was  for  the  work  alone,  the 
stock  being  furnished. 

When  I  got  up  this  new  time-keeper,  as  usual  all  the  clock-makers  were 
clown  on  me  again;  Jerome  was  going  to  ruin  the  business,  and  this  cheap 
thing  would  take  the  place  of  larger  ones.  I  told  them  there  were  ten 
thousand  places  where  this  cheap  time-piece  would  be  useful,  and  where 
a  costly  striking  one  would  never  be  used.  There  is  a  variety  of  places 
where  they  are  as  useful  as  if  they  struck  the  hour,  and  there  are  now 
more  of  the  striking  clocks  wanted  than  there  were  when  1  got  up  this 
one  day  time-piece.  When  I  first  began  to  make  clocks,  thousands  would 
say  that  they  could  not  afford  to  have  a  clock  in  their  house  and  they 
must  get  along  without,  or  with  a  watch.  This  cheap  time-piece  is 
worth  as  much  as  a  watch  that  would  cost  a  hundred  dollars,  for  all 
practical  purposes,  as  far  as  the  time  of  day  or  night  is  concerned.  Since 


LIFE  OF  CHAUNCEY  JEROME.  37 

I  began  to  make  clocks,  the  price  has  gradually  been  going  down.  Sup 
pose  the  cheap  time-keeper  had  been  invented  thirty  years  ago,  when 
folks  felt  as  though  they  could  not  have  a  clock  because  it  cost  so  much, 
but  must  get  along  with  a  watch  which  cost  ten  or  fifteen  dollars,  what 
would  the  good  people  have  thought  if  they  could  have  had  a  clock  for 
one  dollar,  or  even  less?  This  cheap  clock  is  much  better  adapted  to  the 
many  log  cabins  and  cheap  dwellings  in  our  country  than  a  watch  of  any 
kind,  and  it  is  not  half  so  costly  or  difficult  to  keep  in  order.  I  can  think 
of  nothing  ever  invented  that  has  been  so  useful  to  so  many.  We  do  not 
fully  appreciate  the  value  of  such  things.  I  have  often  thought,  that  if 
all  the  time-pieces  were  taken  out  of  the  country  at  once,  and  every 
factory  stopped  making  them,  the  whole  community  would  be  brought 
to  see  the  incalculable  value  that  this  Yankee  clock  making  is  to  them. 
The  little  octagon  marine  case  which  is  seen  almost  every  where,  was 
originated  and  first  made  by  me.  I  think  it  is  the  cheapest  and  best  look 
ing  thing  of  the  kind  in  the  market,  and  all  the  work  on  the  case  of  that 
clock  costs  but  eight  cents.  All  of  the  large  hang-up  octagons  and  time 
pieces  were  made  at  our  factory  two  or  three  years  before  any  other 
parties  made  them  at  all.  As  usual,  after  finding  that  it  was  a  good  thing 
and  took  well,  many  others  began  to  make  them.  I  will  say  here  a  little 
more  about  human  nature  and  what  I  have  seen  and  experienced,  during 
the  last  forty-five  years.  Let  an  ingenious,  thinking  man  invent  some 
thing  that  looks  lavorable  for  making  money,  and  one  after  another  will 
be  stealing  into  the  same  business,  when  they  know  their  conduct  is  very 
mean  towards  the  originator  who  may  be  one  of  the  best  men  in  the 
community;  still,  nine  out  of  ten  of  those  who  are  infringing  on  his 
improvement  will  begin  to  hate  and  abuse  him.  I  have  seen  this  dis 
position  carried  out  all  my  life-time.  Forty-five  years  ago,  Mr.  Eli  Terry 
was  the  great  man  in  the  wood  clock  business.  As  I  have  said  before, 
he  got  up  the  Patent  Wood  Shelf  Clock  and  sold  a  right  to  make  it  to 
Seth  Thomas  lor  one  thousand  dollars.  After  two  or  three  years,  Mr. 
Terry  made  further  improvements  and  got  them  patented.  Mr.  Thomas 
then  thought  as  he  had  paid  a  thousand  dollars,  he  would  use  these  im 
provements;  so  he  went  on  making  the  new  patent.  Mr.  Terry  sued  him 
and  the  case  was  in  litigation  for  several  years.  The  whole  Thomas 
family,  the  workmen  and  neighbors,  felt  envious  towards  Mr.  Terry,  and 
1  think  they  have  never  got  entirely  over  it.  There  was  a  general  pre 
judice  and  hatred  toxvards  Mr.  Terry  amongst  all  the  clock-makers  at 
that  time,  and  for  nothing  only  because  they  knew  they  were  infringing 
on  his  rights;  and  to  act  out  human  nature,  they  must  slander  and  try 
to  put  him  down.  This  principle  is  carried  out  very  extensively  in  this 
world,  so  that  if  a  man  wants  to  live  and  have  nothing  said  against  him, 
he  must  look  out  for,  and  help  no  one  but  himself.  If  he  succeeds  in 


38  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

making  money,  it  matters  but  little  in  what  way  he  obtains  it,  whether 
by  gambling  or  any  other  unlawful  means;  while  on  the  other  hand,  if 
he  has  been  doing  good  all  his  life,  and  by  some  mishap  is  reduced  to 
poverty  in  his  old  age,  he  is  despised  and  treated  with  contempt  by  a 
majority  of  the  community. 

It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  a  great  many  to  know  how  the  brass 
clocks  at  the  present  day  are  made.  It  has  been  a  wonder  to  the  world 
for  a  long  time,  how  they  could  possibly  be  sold  so  cheap  and  yet  answer 
so  good  a  purpose.  And,  indeed,  they  could  not,  if  every  part  of  their 
manufacture  was  not  systematized  in  the  most  perfect  manner  and  con 
ducted  on  a  large  scale.  I  will  describe  the  manner  in  which  the  ().  G. 
case  is  made,  (the  style  has  been  made  a  long  time,  and  in  larger  numbers 
than  any  other,)  which  will  give  some  idea  with  what  facility  the  whole 
thing  is  put  through.  Common  merchantable  pine  lumber  is  used  for  the 
body  of  the  case.  The  first  workman  draws  a  board  of  the  stuff  on  a 
frame  and  by  a  movable  circular  saw  cuts  it  in  proper  lengths  for  the 
sides  and  top.  The  knotty  portions  of  it  are  sawed  in  lengths  suitable 
for  boxing  the  clocks  when  finished,  and  but  little  need  be  wasted.  The 
good  pieces  are  then  taken  to  another  saw  and  split  up  in  proper  widths, 
which  are  then  passed  through  the  planeing  machine.  Then  another 
workman  puts  them  through  the  O-G.  cutter  which  forms  the  shape  of 
the  front  of  the  case.  The  next  process  is  the  glueing  on  of  the  veneers — 
the  workman  spreads  the  glue  on  one  piece  at  a  time  and  then  puts  on 
the  veneer  of  rcsewood  or  mahogany.  A  dozen  of  these  pieces  are  placed 
together  in  hand-screws  till  the  glue  is  properly  hardened.  The  O-G. 
shapes  of  these  pieces  fit  into  each  other  when  they  are  screwed  together. 
When  the  glue  is  sufficiently  dry,  the  next  thing  is  to  make  the  veneer 
smooth  and  fit  for  varnishing.  We  have  what  is  called  a  sand  paper 
wheel,  made  of  pine  plank,  its  edge  formed  in  an  O-G.  shape,  and  sand 
paper  glued  to  it.  When  this  wheel  is  revolving  rapidly,  the  pieces  are 
passed  over  it  and  in  this  way  smoothed  very  fast.  They  are  then  ready 
to  varnish,  and  it  usally  takes  about  ten  days  to  put  on  the  several  coats 
of  varnish,  and  polish  them  ready  for  inhering,  which  completes  the 
pieces  ready  for  glueing  in  shape  of  the  case.  The  sides  of  the  case  are 
made  much  cheaper.  I  used  to  have  the  stuff  for  ten  thousand  of  these 
cases  in  the  works  at  one  time.  With  these  great  facilities,  the  labor  costs 
less  than  twenty  cents  apiece  for  this  kind  of  case,  and  with  the  stock, 
they  cost  less  than  fifty  cents.  A  cabinet  maker  could  not  make  one  for 
less  than  five  dollars.  This  proves  and  shows  what  can  be  clone  by  system. 
The  dials  are  cut  out  of  large  sheets  of  zinc,  the  holes  punched  by  ma 
chinery,  and  then  put  into  the  paint  room,  where  they  are  painted  by  a 
short  and  easy  process.  The  letters  and  figures  are  then  printed  on.  I 
had  a  private  room  for  this  purpose,  and  a  man  who  could  print  twelve 


LIFE  OF  CHAUNCEV  JEROME.  39 

or  fifteen  hundred  in  a  day.  The  whole  dial  cost  me  less  than  five  cents. 
The  tablets  were  printed  in  the  same  manner,  the  colors  put  on  afterwards 
by  girls,  and  the  whole  work  on  these  beautiful  tablets  cost  less  than  one 
and  a  half  cents:  the  cost  of  glass  and  work  was  about  four  cents.  Every 
body  knows  that  all  of  these  parts  must  be  made  very  cheap  or  an  O-G. 
clock  could  not  be  sold  for  one  dollar  and  a  half,  or  two  dollars.  The 
weights  cost  about  thirteen  cents  per  clock,  the  cost  of  boxing  them 
about  ten  cents,  and  the  first  cost  of  the  movements  of  a  one-day  brass 
clock  is  less  than  fifty  cents.  I  will  here  say  a  little  about  the  process  of 
making  the  wheels.  It  will  no  doubt,  astonish  a  great  many  to  know  howr 
rapidly  they  can  be  made.  I  will  venture  to  say,  that  I  can  pick  out  three 
men  who  will  take  the  brass  in  the  sheet,  press  out  and  level  under  the 
drop,  there  cut  the  teeth,  and  make  all  of  the  wheels  to  five  hundred 
clocks  in  one  day;  there  are  from  eight  to  ten  of  these  wheels  in  every 
clock,  and  in  an  eight-da}'  clock  more.  This  will  look  to  some  like  a  great 
story,  but  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  clock  business.  If  some  of  the 
parts  of  a  clock  were  not  made  for  almost  nothing,  they  could  not  be 
sold  so  cheap  when  finished. 

The  facilities  which  the  Jerome  Manufacturing  Company  had  over 
every  other  concern  of  the  kind  in  the  country,  and  their  customers  in 
this  and  foreign  countries,  are  worth  to  the  present  company  more  than 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Their  method  of  making  dials,  tablets 
and  brass  doors  was  a  saving  of  more  than  ten  thousand  dollars  per  year 
over  any  other  company  doing  the  same  amount  of  business;  and  I  know- 
that  the  present  company  would  not  give  up  the  customers  of  the  Jerome 
Manufacturing  Company  for  ten  thousand  dollars  per  year:  they  could 
not  aftord  to  do  it.  The  workmen  who  came  with  me  from  Bristol,  were 
an  uncommonly  energetic  and  ingenious  set  of  men.  Many  years  they 
had  large  and  profitable  jobs  in  the  different  branches,  which  encouraged 
thenl  to  invent  and  get  up  improvements  for  doing  the  work  fast,  and  in 
a  great  many  things  they  far  surpass  the  workmen  in  similar  establish 
ments — all  of  which  have  resulted  to  the  benefit  of  the  present  manu 
facturing  company  of  New  Haven. 

In  the  year  1850,  I  was  induced  by  a  proposition  from  the  Benedict  & 
Burnham  Co.,  of  Waterbury,  to  enter  into  a  joint-stock  company  at 
my  place  in  New  Haven,  under  the  name  of  the  Jerome  Manufacturing 
Co.  They  were  to  put  in  thirty-five  thousand  dollars,  and  I  was  to 
furnish  the  same  amount  of  capital.  We  did  so,  and  went  on  very  pros 
perously  for  a  year  or  two,  making  a  great  many  clocks,  and  selling  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  worth  per  year  in  England,  at  a 
profit  of  twenty  thousand  dollars.  They  were  very  thorough  in  looking 
into  the  affairs  of  the  company,  which  was  all  right  of  course,  but  did  not 
suit  all  of  the  interested  parties.  My  son  was  Secretary  and  financial 


40  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

manager  of  the  company.  He  seemed  to  have  a  desire  to  keep  things  to 
himself  a  little  too  much,  which  also  did  not  suit  many  of  the  interested 
parties.  My  son  told  me  he  thought  \ve  had  better  buy  the  company  out, 
and  said  that  we  could  do  so  without  difficulty,  and  he  thought  it  would 
be  a  great  advantage  to  us.  Some  were  willing  to  sell,  and  others  were 
not.  Mr.  Burnham  made  an  offer  what  he  would  sell  for,  which  the 
secretary  accepted,  others  of  the  stock-holders  made  similar  propositions 
and  the  bargain  closed,  we  paying  them  the  capital  they  had  advanced 
and  twenty-one  per  cent,  profits,  and  buying,  in  the  mean  time,  seventy- 
five  thousand  dollars  worth  of  brass — the  profits  on  which  were  not  less 
than  twenty  thousand  dollars,  which  they  had  the  cash  for  in  the  course 
ol  the  year.  About  this  time  a  man  by  the  name  of  Lyman  Squires 
bought  stock  in  the  company,  and  took  a  great  interest  in  the  business. 
A  wealthy  brother  of  his  bought,  I  think,  ten  thousand  dollars  worth  of 
stock.  The  stock  was  increased  in  this  way  to  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  The  financial  affairs  were  managed  by  the  Secretary,  Mr. 
Squires,  and  a  man  by  the  name  of  Bissell.  They  made  a  great  many 
additions  to  the  factory  which  I  thought  quite  unnecessary,  enlarging  the 
buildings,  putting  in  a  new  engine  and  a  great  deal  of  costly  machinery. 
They  laughed  at  me  because  I  found  fault  with  these  things  and  called  me 
an  old  fogy.  I  was  not  pleased  with  the  management  at  all  times,  and 
although  I  had  retired  from  active  business,  1  felt  a  deep  interest  in  the 
affairs  ol  the  company,  and  owned  a  large  amount  of  the  stock.  The 
Secretary  thought  I  was  always  looking  on  the  dark  side  and  prophesying 
evil,  because  I  frequently  remonstrated  with  him  on  the  many  extrava 
gancies  which  were  constantly  being  added  to  the  establishment.  I 
frequently  told  him  that  if  the  company  should  fail,  I  should  have  to 
bear  the  whole  blame,  because  my  name  was  known  all  over  the  world. 
He  always  told  me  in  the  strongest  terms  that  I  need  give  myself  no  un 
easiness  about  that,  as  the  company  was  worth  a  great  deal  of  money. 
Things  went  on  in  this  way  till  the  year  1855,  and  while  I  was  absent 
from  the  State,  P.  T.  Barnum  was  admitted  as  a  member  of  our  company. 
Within  six  months  from  that  time,  the  Jerome  Manufacturing  Company 
failed,  the  causes  of  which,  and  the  results,  1  have  clearly  and  truthfully 
narrated  in  another  part  of  this  book.  The  causes  were  not  fully  under 
stood  by  me  at  that  time.  I  have  found  them  out  since,  and  deem  it  an 
act  of  justice  to  myself  to  make  them  public.  I  was  hopelessly  ruined  by 
this  failure.  The  company  had  used  my  name  as  endorser  to  a  large 
amount,  many  times  larger  than  I  had  any  idea  of. 


LIFE    OF    CHATNCEV    JEROME.  41 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE     NEW     HAVEN    CLOCK   COMPANY,    AND    OTHER    CLOCK    MANUFACTURERS 

JN    CONNECTICUT. 

I  will  here  give  a  brief  account  of  the  firms  carrying  on  this  important 
business  in  Connecticut.  The  Xew  Haven  Clock  Company,  which 
succeeded  the  Jerome  Manufacturing  Company,  are  now  making  more 
clocks  than  any  three  other  makers  in  the  state.  As  I  speak  of  the  dif 
ferent  manufactories,  I  will  give  the  outlines  and  standing  of  the  men 
connected  with  them.  As  their  goods  go  all  over  the  world,  it  is  natural 
and  pleasant  for  men  who  are  dealing  in  their  goods  to  know7  what  kind 
ot  men  they  are  at  home,  and  what  the  community  think  of  them.  The 
Xew  Haven  company  is  a  joint-stock  company.  The  head  man  in  this 
concern,  is  the  Hon.  James  English,  who  is  second  to  no  business  man  in 
the  State — high  minded,  clear  sighted,  and  very  popular  with  all  who  deal 
with  him.  He  was,  when  a  boy,  remarkable  for  industry,  prudence  and 
good  behavior.  He  was  an  apprentice  at  the  house-joiner  trade,  but  soon 
got  into  other  business  which  gave  him  a  greater  chance  to  develope  and 
become  more  useful  to  himself  and  the  community.  He  began  in  life 
without  a  dollar,  but  is  now  said  to  be  worth  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  His  age  at  this  time  is  about  forty-eight.  He  is  a  Democrat  in 
politics;  has  been  elected  to  many  important  offices,  and  has  been  the 
first  select  man  of  Xew  Haven  for  many  years;  he  has  been  elected  State 
Senator  for  three  years  in  succession,  and  all  of  these  offices  he  has  filled 
with  ability.  Jn  the  spring  of  1860,  he  was  nominated  as  candidate  for 
Lieutenant  Governor  on  a  ticket  with  Col.  Thomas  H.  Seymour  of  Hart 
ford,  for  Governor,  which  made  the  most  popular  Democratic  ticket  that 
has  ever  been  run  in  the  State.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  great  anti-slavery 
feeling  there  was  at  this  canvass,  Mr.  English  would  have  been  tri 
umphantly  elected.  Many  of  the  opposing  party  would  been  glad  to 
have  seen  him  elected,  and  would  have  voted  for  him,  had  it  not  been 
for  the  influence  they  thought  it  would  have  on  the  Presidential  election. 
\Ve  heard  many  Republicans  say  this  in  XTew  Haven,  and  many  did  vote 
that  ticket. 

H.  M.  Welch,  who  has  for  a  long  time  been  connected  with  Mr.  English 
in  business,  is  largely  interested  in  this  clock  company.  He  gives  most 
of  his  attention  to  other  kinds  of  manufacturing,  in  which  Messrs.  English 
and  Welch,  are  very  extensively  engaged.  Mr.  Welch  is  one  of  the  most 
intelligent,  upright,  and  kind  hearted  business  men  in  the  whole  State, 
and  is  admired  as  such  by  all  who  know  him.  He  is  also  a  Democrat  in 
politics,  very  popular  in  his  party,  and  is  well  qualified  for  any  offices. 
He  would  make  a  good  candidate  for  Governor  or  member  of  Congress. 


42  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

He  is  about  forty-six  years  old,  worth  perhaps,  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars;  he  has  held  many  important  offices,  has  been  a  Representative  to 
the  State  Legislature  for  many  years,  and  State  Senator  a  number  of 
times.  He  has  recently  been  elected  Mayor  of  the  city,  and  has  filled  all 
of  these  offices  with  much  talent. 

John  Woodruff,  a  member  of  Congress,  elected  for  the  second  time 
from  this  district,  is  the  next  largest  owner  in  this  great  brass  clock  busi 
ness.  He  commenced  to  work  at  clocks  with  me  when  a  boy  only  fifteen 
years  old.  He  was  a  very  uncommon  boy,  and  is  now  an  uncommon 
man,  very  popular  among  his  fellow  workmen,  popular  with  Democrats, 
popular  with  Republicans,  popular  every  where,  and  can  be  elected  to 
Congress  when  there  is  five  hundred  majority  against  his  party  in  his 
district. 

Hiram  Camp  who  is  the  next  largest  stock-holder  in  this  clock  com 
pany,  is  forty-nine  years  old.  He  commenced  making  clocks  with  me  at 
the  age  of  seventeen,  and  is  now  President  of  the  company.  He  is  a 
Republican  in  politics,  and  has  been  chosen  Representative  from  New 
Haven  to  the  Legislature  of  the  State.  At  this  time  he  is  Chief  Engineer 
of  the  Fire  Department,  is  very  popular  with  his  workmen,  and  highly 
respected  by  the  whole  community  in  which  he  lives.  Many  others  who 
hold  prominent  positions  in  this  great  business  in  Xew  Haven,  first  came 
here  with  me  when  I  moved  from  Bristol.  I  should  mention  Philip  Pond, 
an  excellent  man  who  left  the  business  two  or  three  years  since,  on  account 
of  his  health,  but  who  is  now  connected  in  the  wholesale  grocery  business 
of  the  firm  of  Pond,  Greenwood  &  Lester,  in  this  city.  Also  Charles  L. 
Griswold,  now  a  bit  and  augur  maker  in  the  town  of  Chester,  who  began 
to  work  for  me  twenty  years  ago,  when  a  boy.  He  was  once  a  poor  boy, 
but  now  is  a  talented  and  superior  man.  He  has  been  a  member  of  the 
Legislature,  and  has  held  many  offices  of  trust. 

L.  F.  Root,  now  a  leading  man  in  New  Haven,  came  to  work  with  me 
when  quite  young,  nearly  twenty  years  ago.  He  also  has  held  many  offices 
of  trust,  and  filled  them  with  great  ability.  I  could  mention  many  others, 
but  cannot  in  this  brief  work  speak  of  them  as  their  merits  deserve.  It 
gives  me  pleasure  to  know  that  the  business  of  the  Jerome  Manufacturing 
Company  has  fallen  into  such  good  hands. 

The  Benedict  and  Burnham  Company,  now  making  clocks  in  the  city 
of  Waterbury,  under  the  name  of  the  Waterbury  Clock  Company,  is 
composed  of  a  large  number  of  the  first  citizens  of  that  place.  In  politics 
nearly  all  of  them  are  Republicans.  The  oldest  man  of  the  company  is 
Deacon  Aaron  Benedict,  now  about  seventy-five  years  old — a  real  "old 
Puritan,  Christian  gentleman."  He  has  been  Representative  and  State 
Senator  manv  times — Mr.  Burnham  of  New  York,  another  member  of 


LIFE    OF    CHAUXCEV    JEROME.  43 

this  company,  is  well  known  to  almost  every  body  as  one  of  the  richest 
men  in  whole  country.  My  brother,  Xoble  Jerome,  who  is  an  excellent 
mechanic  and  as  good  a  brass  clock  maker  as  can  be  found,  is  now  making 
the  movements  for  this  company,  and  Edward  Church,  a  first  rate  man 
and  an  excellent  workman,  is  making  their  cases.  He  worked  with  me 
seventeen  years  at  case  making,  and  can  do  a  good  job.  I  cannot  pass 
without  speaking  about  another  man  of  this  company,  Arad  W.  Welton 
Esq.  He  was  one  of  my  soldier  companions  in  Capt.  John  Buckingham's 
company,  which  went  to  fight  the  British  in  1813,  at  new  London,  and  in 
lcS14  at  Xew  Haven.  He  stood  very  near  me  in  the  ranks.  I  shall  never 
forget  what  pluck  and  courage  he  showed  one  night  when  the  newrs  \vas 
brought  into  camp  that  the  enemy  were  landing  from  their  ships.  Our 
whole  regiment  was  mustered  in  fifteen  minutes,  and  on  the  \vay  to  pitch 
battle  with  the  British  and  defend  our  shores.  This  Mr.  Welton,  who 
is  now  an  old  man,  as  stout  and  large  as  Gen.  Cass,  and  looking  something 
like  him,  was  then  a  young  man  nineteen  years  old,  and  without  exception 
the  funniest  and  drollest  fellow  that  I  ever  saw.  He  kept  us  all  laughing 
while  we  were  going  down  to  fight  that  awful  battle,  which,  however, 
proved  to  be  bloodless.  This  incident  occurred  at  Xew  London,  and  I 
have  often  thought  of  it  in  latter  days.  Mr.  Welton  is  said  to  be  a  great 
business  man,  and  the  company  with  which  he  is  connected  is  doing  a 
good  business. 

The  next  clock  company  which  I  shall  speak  of,  is  that  of  Seth  Thomas 
&  Co.,  of  Plymouth  Hollow,  Connecticut.  As  I  have  mentioned  before, 
the  senior  Thomas  is  not  living.  The  business  is  carred  on  by  a  company, 
the  members  of  which  are  all  Republicans  in  politics  and  respectable 
men.  Fifty  years  ago  this  spring,  Heman  Clark  built  the  factory  which 
Seth  Thomas,  two  or  three  years  afterwards,  bought,  and  in  which  he 
carried  on  business  until  his  death,  about  two  years  since.  It  was  never 
Mr.  Thomas'  practice  to  get  up  any  thing  new.  He  never  would  change 
his  patterns  or  mode  of  manufacturing,  until  he  was  driven  to  it  to  keep 
his  customers.  At  the  time  when  I  invented  the  one-day  brass  clock  in 
1838,  he  said  much  against  it,  that  it  was  not  half  so  good  as  a  \vood  clock, 
and  that  he  never  would  take  up  any  thing  again  that  Jerome  had 
adopted ;  but  he  was  compelled  to,  in  a  year  or  two,  to  keep  his  customers. 
He  sent  his  foreman  over  to  Bristol,  where  I  was  then  carrying  on  busi 
ness,  to  get  patterns  of  movements  and  cases  and  take  all  the  advantage 
he  could  of  my  experience,  labors,  and  improvements  which  I  had  been 
studying  upon  so  long.  I  allowed  my  foreman  to  spend  more  than  two 
days  with  his,  giving  him  all  the  knowledge  and  insight  he  could  of  the 
business,  knowing  what  his  object  was.  A  friend  asked  me  why  I  was 
doing  this,  and  said  that  if  I  should  send  my  man  to  Thomas'  factory  he 
would  be  kicked  out  immediately.  I  told  him  I  knew  that  perfectly  well, 


44  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

but  that  if  Mr.  Thomas  set  out  to  get  into  the  business,  he  certainly  would 
find  out,  and  that  the  course  I  was  taking  was  wisest  and  more  friendly. 
I  have  thought  since  how  quickly  such  kind  treatment  as  I  showed 
towards  his  man  can  be  forgotten;  yes;  this  company  have  all  forgotten 
the  service  that  I  rendered  them  twenty  years  ago,  and  as  I  have  said 
before,  would  probably  have  been  making  the  old  wood  clock  to  this  day, 
had  it  not  been  for  other  parties.  There  always  has  been  a  great  deal  of 
jealousy  among  the  Yankee  clock-makers,  and  they  all  seemed  to  hate 
the  one  who  took  the  lead.  The  next  establishment  of  which  I  shall 
speak,  is  that  of  William  L.  Gilbert,  of  Winsted,  Connecticut.  He  is  said 
to  be  miserly  in  feeling,  and  is  quite  rich;  not  very  enterprising,  but  has 
made  a  great  deal  of  money  by  availing  himself  of  the  improvements  of 
others. 

The  next  one  in  the  business  to  whom  I  shall  allude  is  E.  X.  Welch, 
of  Bristol,  Connecticut.  He  is  about  fifty  years  of  age,  and  has  been  in 
many  kinds  of  business.  He  was  deeply  interested  in  the  failure  of  J.  C. 
Brown  a  few  years  ago,  and  succeeded  him  in  the  clock  business.  He  is  a 
leading  man  in  the  Baptist  church,  and  has  a  great  tact  for  making  money; 
but  he  says  that  all  he  wants  of  money  is  to  do  good  with  it.  He  is  a 
Democrat  in  politics,  and  never  wants  an  office  from  his  party. 

These  five  companies  which  I  have  named,  make  nearly  all  of  the 
clocks  manufactured  in  Connecticut;  though  movements  are  made  by 
three  other  companies.  Beach  and  Hubbell  of  Bristol,  are  largely  engaged 
in  manufacturing  the  movements  of  brass  marine  clocks.  Also  two 
brothers  by  the  name  of  Manross,  in  Bristol,  are  engaged  in  the  same 
business.  Noah  Pomeroy  of  Bristol,  is  also  engaged  in  making  pendulum 
movements  for  other  parties.  1  should,  however,  mention  Ireneus 
Atkins,  of  Bristol,  who  is  making  a  first-rate  thirty-day  brass  clock,  and 
I  am  told  there  is  no  better  one  for  time  in  the  country.  The  movement 
for  this  kind  of  clock  was  invented  by  Joseph  Ives,  who  has  spent  most 
of  his  time  for  the  last  twenty-five  years  in  improving  on  springs  and 
escapements  for  clocks,  and  who  has  done  a  great  deal  for  the  advance 
ment  of  this  business.  Mr.  Atkins,  who  is  making  this  thirty-day  time 
piece,  is  an  excellent  man  to  deal  with.  The  five  large  companies  which 
1  have  named,  manufacture  about  a  half  a  million  clocks  per  annum;  the 
New  Haven  company  about  two  hundred  thousand;  and  the  others  about 
three  hundred  thousand  between  them. 


LIFE    OF    CHAUNCEY    JEROME.  45 

CHAPTER  X. 

BARXUM'S    CONNECTION    WITH    THE    JEROME    CLOCK    co. — CAUSES    AND 

RESULTS   OF  ITS    FAILURE. 

The  connection  of  Barnum  with  the  Jerome  Manufacturing  Company 
of  Xew  Haven,  and  the  failure  of  the  Company  have  been  the  subject  of 
much  speculation  to  the  whole  world,  and  has  never  been  clearly  under 
stood.  Barnum  claimed  that  he  was  cheated  and  swindled  by  this  com 
pany,  robbed  of  his  property  and  name,  and  reduced  to  poverty.  But 
before  giving  any  statements,  I  call  attention  to  the  following  article 
taken  from  the  Xew  York  Daily  Tribune,  of  March  24th,  I860: 

THE  GREAT  SHOWMAN. — -P.  T.  Barnum,  "the  great  American  showman,"  as  he  loves 
to  hear  himself  called,  who  furnishes  more  amusement  for  a  quarter  of  a  dollar  than  any 
other  man  in  America,  is,  we  are  happy  to  announce,  himself  again.  He  has  disposed  of 
the  last  of  those  villainous  clock  notes,  re-established  his  credit  up  on  a  cash  basis,  and 
once  more  comes  forward  to  cater  for  the  public  amusement  at  the  American  museum- 
To-day,  between  the  acts  of  the  play,  Mr.  Barnum  will  appear  upon  his  own  stage,  in 
his  own  costly  character  of  the  Yankee  Clockmaker,  for  which  he  qualified  himself, 
with  the  most  reckless  disregard  of  expense,  and  will  "give  a  brief  history  of  his 
adventures  as  a  clockmaker,  showing  how  the  clock  ran  down,  and  how  it  was  wound 
up;  shadowing  forth  in  the  same  the  future  of  the  museum."  Of  course,  Barnum's 
benefit  will  be  a  bumper.  Next  week  the  Museum  will  be  closed  for  renovation  and 
repairs,  and  the  week  after  it  will  reopen  under  the  popular  P.  T.  B.,  once  more. 

1  will  now  give  the  true  statement  of  facts  and  particulars  of  his 
connection  with  the  Jerome  Manufacturing  Company — which,  however, 
was  not  his  first  experience  in  clock-making.  Some  time  before  this,  he 
was  interested  in  a  Company  located  in  the  town  of  Litchfield,  Con 
necticut,  and,  I  believe,  owned  about  ten  thousand  dollars  worth  of 
stock.  They  made  a  very  poor  article  which  was  called  a  marine  clock, 
if  1  am  rightly  informed.  That  Company  failed,  and  Barnum  took  the 
stock  as  security  for  endorsing  and  furnishing  them  with  cash.  I  do  not 
suppose  the  whole  of  the  effects  were  worth  transporting  to  Bridgeport, 
although  estimated  by  him  at  a  large  amount.  About  this  time  Theodore 
Terry's  clock  factory,  at  Ansonia,  was  destroyed  by  fire.  A  large  portion 
of  the  stock  was  saved,  though  in  a  damaged  condition,  much  of  which 
was  worth  nothing — the  tools  and  machinery  being  but  little  better  than 
so  much  old  iron.  Terry  knowing  that  Barnum  was  largely  interested  in 
real  estate  in  East  Bridgeport,  and  anxious  to  have  it  improved,  thought 
he  could  make  a  good  arrangement  with  him  for  building  a  factory  there 
for  the  manufacture  of  clocks,  and  did  so.  Terry  had  a  large  quantity  of 
old  clocks  in  a  store  in  New  York — many  of  them  old-fashioned  and  un 
saleable,  and  thousands  of  these  \vere  not  worth  fifty  cents  apiece.  Terry 


46  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

and  Barnum  now  proposed  forming  a  joint-stock  company,  putting  in 
their  old  rubbish  as  stock,  and  estimating  it,  most  likely,  at  four  times  its 
value  in  cash.  They  built  a  factory  in  East  Bridgeport,  and  made  pre 
parations  for  manufacturing.  Terry  knew  ten  times  as  much  about 
the  business  as  Barnum  did,  and  knowing,  also,  that  the  old  stock  was 
comparatively  worthless,  held  back  while  Barnum  was  urging  him  to 
push  ahead  with  the  manufacturing.  Terry  made  a  great  bluster,  saying 
that  he  was  going  to  hire  men  and  do  a  great  business,  while,  unknown  to 
Barnum,  he  was  trying  to  sell  the  stock  he  held  in  the  company.  They 
finally  cooked  up  a  plan  to  sell  their  New  York  store  and  the  Bridgeport 
factory  and  machinery,  if  they  could,  to  the  Jerome  Manufacturing 
Company,  taking  stock  in  that  company  for  pay,  and — the  Jerome  Com 
pany  stock  being  issued  to  the  owners  of  the  Terry  &  Barnum  stock — thus 
merge  the  two  companies  into  one.  This  transaction  was  made  and  closed 
without  my  knowledge,  (I  being  at  the  time  from  the  State,)  though  the 
"old  man"  has  had  to  bear  all  the  blame.  As  I  afterwards  found  out, 
Barnum  told  my  son,  the  Secretary  of  the  Company,  that  Terry  & 
Barnum  owed  about  twenty  thousand  dollars:  this  was  the  amount  Terry 
had  drawn  for  on  the  New  York  store.  They  made  a  written  agreement 
with  the  Jerome  Manufacturing  Company,  to  this  effect; — that  our 
Company  should  assume  the  liabilities  of  their  old  Company,  which  were 
stated  at  twenty  thousand  dollars,  and  Barnum  was  to  endorse  to  any 
extent  for  the  Jerome  Company.  It  afterwards  proved  that  the  entire 
debts  of  Terry  &  Barnum  amounted  to  about  seventy-two  thousand 
dollars,  which  the  Jerome  Company  were  obliged  to  assume.  The  great 
difference  in  the  real  and  supposed  amount  of  their  indebtedness  and  the 
unsaleable  property  turned  in  as  stock  were  enough  to  ruin  any  company. 
It  is  a  positive  fact  that  the  stock  of  the  Jerome  Company  was  not  worth 
half  as  much,  three  months  after  Barnum  came  into  the  concern  as  it  was 
before  that  time.  Some  of  the  stock-holders  did  not  like  to  have  Terry 
own  stock,  and  Barnum  to  satisfy  them,  bought  him  out,  paying  him 
twelve  thousand  dollars  in  cash — he  in  the  end,  making  a  grand  thing 
out  his  Ansonia  remains.  It  is  well  known  that  the  Jerome  Manufacturing 
Company  failed  in  the  fall  of  1855,  to  the  wonder  and  astonishment  of 
myself  and  of  every  body  else.  The  true  causes  of  this  great  failure  never 
have  been  made  public.  I  myself  did  not  know  them  at  that  time,  but 
have  found  them  out  from  time  to  time  since,  and  I  now  propose  to  make 
them  public,  as  it  has  been  the  general  impression  almost  every  where  that 
Barnum  and  myself  were  associated  in  defrauding  the  community.  7 
wish  to  have  it  understood  that  I  never  saw  P.  T.  Barnum,  while  he  was 
connected  with  the  Company  of  which  I  was  a  member.  I  have  never 
seen  him  but  once  since,  and  that  was  in  February  after  the  failure. 
About  this  time  law  suits  were  being  brought  against  him,  and  as  some 


LIFE  OF  CHAUNCEY  JEROME.  47 

supposed,  by  his  friends.  He  was  called  upon,  or  offered  himself  as  a 
witness,  and  I  believe  testified  that  he  was  worth  nothing.  The  natural 
effect  of  this  testimony  was  to  depreciate  the  paper  which  his  name  was 
on.  At  the  time  when  I  saw  him,  he  told  me  that  the  Museum  was  his 
just  as  much  as  it  ever  was,  and  that  he  received  the  profits,  which  had 
never  been  less  than  twenty-five  thousand  and  wrere  sometimes  thirty 
thousand  per  annum;  and  yet,  he  was  publicly  stating  that  he  was  worth 
nothing!  He  also,  as  I  supposed,  held  securities  of  the  Jerome  Manufac 
turing  Company,  to  a  large  amount,  (as  I  suppose  about  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars,)  for  I  know  that  such  papers  had  been  in  his  hands. 
There  were  many  persons  who  were  interested  in  the  revival  of  the 
business,  who  were  in  some  way  flattered  into  the  belief  that  Barnum 
would  re-purchase  the  whole  clock  establishment  and  put  them  back  into 
the  business  again.  Several  men  were  sent  by  some  one  to  examine  the 
property  and  estimate  its  value,  and  those  persons  who  were  anxious  for 
a  restoration  of  the  business  were  in  some  way  led  to  believe  that  Barnum 
intended  to  re-commence  the  business  of  clock-making.  For  myself,  I  do 
not  suppose  that  Barnum  ever  seriously  contemplated  any  such  thing; 
but  the  belief  that  he  did,  made  some  men  quiet  who  might  otherwise 
have  been  active  and  troublesome. 

The  maniier  in  which  this  matter  has  been  represented  would  reflect 
dishonest}'  upon  the  Secretary,  which  would  be  untrue.  Xo  one  who 
knows  him  will,  or  can  accuse  him  of  dishonesty.  I  love  truth,  honesty 
and  religion;  I  do  not  mean,  however,  the  religion  that  Barnum  believes 
in:  (I  believe  that  the  wicked  are  punished  in  another  world.)  I  ask  the 
reader  to  look  at  my  situation  in  my  old  age.  I  think  as  much  of  a  good 
name,  as  to  purity  of  character  and  honesty  at  heart,  as  any  man  living; 
and  very  often  reading  in  the  Xew  York  papers  of  speeches  that  Barnum 
has  made,  alluding  to  his  being  defrauded  by  the  Jerome  Manufacturing 
Company,  I  wish  the  world  to  know  the  whole  facts  in  the  case,  and  what 
my  position  was  in  the  Company  which  bore  my  name.  After  many 
years — years  of  very  active  business  life — I  had  retired  from  active  duty 
in  the  Company,  although  I  took  a  deep  interest  in  every  thing  connected 
with  it,  and  also  a  great  pride,  as  it  was  a  business  that  I  had  built  up 
and  had  been  many  years  in  perfecting.  The  manufacturing  had  been 
systematized  in  the  most  perfect  manner  and  every  thing  looked  pros 
perous  to  me.  I  owned  stock  as  others  did,  but  did  not  know  of  its 
financial  standing,  and  was  always  informed  that  it  was  all  right,  and 
that  I  should  be  perfectly  safe  in  endorsing.  I  wish  to  have  it  undersood 
that  I  did  not  sign  my  name  to  any  of  this  paper,  it  being  done  by  the 
Secretary  himself,  that  therefore  I  could  not  know  of  the  amounts  that 
were  raised  in  that  way,  that  I  did  not  find  out  till  after  the  failure,  and 
then  the  large  amounts  overwhelmed  me  with  surprise. 


48  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Barnum  made  two  or  three  trips  to  Europe 
to  provide  in  some  way  for  the  support  of  his  "poor  and  destitute"  family, 
which  as  he  claimed,  had  been  robbed  and  ruined  by  the  Connecticut 
clock-makers.  At  one  time  he  was  stopped  on  a  pier  in  New  York,  just 
as  he  was  starting  for  Europe,  by  a  suit  brought  against  him.  Thus  the 
news  went  abroad  that  poor  Barnum  was  hunted  and  troubled  on  every 
side  with  these  clock  notes.  It  was  reported  that  he  was  quite  sick  in 
England  and  could  not  live,  and,  at  another  time,  that  being  much 
depressed  and  discouraged  on  account  of  his  many  troubles,  he  had  taken 
to  drinking  very  hard,  and  in  all  probability  would  live  but  a  short  time; 
while  at  the  same  time,  he  was  lecturing  on  temperance  to  the  English 
people,  and  was  in  fact  a  total-abstinence  man.  These  stories  were 
extensively  circulated;  the  value  of  his  paper  was  depreciated  in  the 
market,  and  was,  in  several  instances  bought  for  a  small  sum. 

Since  writing  the  foregoing  with  regard  to  his  coming  into  the  Com 
pany,  and,  as  he  states,  being  ruined  by  it,  I  have  ascertained  to  my  own 
satisfaction,  that  our  connection  with  him  was  the  means  of  ruining  the 
Company.  A  few  days  since  I  was  talking  with  a  man  who  has  been  more 
familiar  than  myself  with  the  whole  transaction,  and  he  told  me  it  was 
his  opinion  that  if  we  had  never  seen  Barnum  we  should  still  have  been 
making  clocks  in  that  factory.  It  was  a  great  mystery  to  me,  and  to  every 
body  else,  how  the  Company  could  run  down  so  rapidly  during  the  last 
year.  I  think  I  have  found  out,  and  these  are  my  reasons.  Instead  ot 
having  an  amount  of  twenty  thousand  dollars  to  cancel  of  the  Terry  & 
Barnum  debts  and  accounts  (which  the  Secretary  foolishly  agreed  to  do,) 
it  eventually  proved  to  be  about  seventy  thousand ;  (this  I  have  found 
out  since  the  failure.)  This  great  loss  the  Secretary  kept  to  himself,  and 
it  involved  the  Company  so  deeply  that  he  became  almost  desperate; 
for  knowing  by  this  time  that  he  had  been  greatly  embarrassed,  he  was 
determined  to  raise  money  in  an}'  way  that  he  could,  honestly,  and  get 
out  of  the  difficulty  if  possible.  He  had,  as  he  thought,  got  to  keep  this 
an  entire  secret,  because  if  known  it  would  ruin  the  credit  of  the  Com 
pany.  When  these  extra  drafts  and  notes  of  Terry  &  Barnum  were  added 
to  the  debts  of  the  Company,  he  was  obliged  to  resort  to  various  expedi 
ents  to  raise  money  to  pay  them.  This  led  him  to  the  exchange  of  notes 
on  a  large  scale,  which  proved  to  be  a  great  loss,  as  many  of  the  parties 
were  irresponsible.  There  was  a  loss  of  thirty  thousand  dollars  by  one 
man,  and  I  am  sure  that  there  must  have  been  more  than  fifty  thousand 
dollars  lost  in  this  way.  He  was  also  obliged  to  issue  short  dratts  and 
notes  and  raise  money  on  them  at  fearful  rates.  The  Terry  &  Barnum 
stock  which  was  taken  in  at  par,  was  not  worth  twenty-five  per  cent. 
which  had  a  tendency  to  reduce  the  value  of  the  stock  of  our  Company, 
though  I  have  recently  heard  that  the  Secretary  bought  stock  at  par  for 


LIFE    OF    CHAUNCEV    JEROME.  49 

the  Jerome  Company  of  some  former  owners  in  the  Terry  &  Barnum 
Company,  in  Bridgeport,  only  a  short  time  before  the  failure.  To  show 
the  confidence  the  Secretary  had  in  the  standing  of  the  Company,  he 
recommended  one  of  his  own  brothers,  not  more  than  one  month  betore 
the  Company  failed,  to  buy  five  thousand  dollars  worth  of  the  stock, 
which  he  did.  It  was  owned  by  a  Bridgeport  man  and  he  paid  par  value 
for  it  in  good  gold  and  silver  watches  at  cash  prices.  All  of  these  trans 
actions  were  made  without  my  knowledge,  and  I  have  found  them  out 
by  piece-meal  ever  since.  I  do  fully  believe  that  if  the  Secretary  had 
been  worth  half  a  million  of  dollars,  he  would  have  sacrificed  every 
dollar,  rather  than  have  had  the  Company  failed  under  his  management 
as  it  did. 

It  has  been  publicly  stated  that  Mr.  Barnum  endorsed  largely  on  blank 
notes  and  drafts  and  that  he  was  thus  rendered  responsible  to  a  far  greater 
extent  than  he  was  aware  of;  such,  however,  was  not  the  case. 

The  troubles  that  have  grown  out  of  the  failure  of  this  great  business, 
have  left  me  poor  and  broken  down  in  spirit,  constitution  and  health. 
I  was  never  designed  by  Providence  to  eat  the  bread  of  dependence,  for 
it  is  like  poison  to  me,  and  will  surely  kill  me  in  a  short  time.  I  have 
now  lost  more  than  forty  pounds  of  flesh,  though  my  ambition  has  not 
vet  died  within  me. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

EFFECTS     OF    THE     FAILURE    ON    MYSELF. REMOV.AL    TO    WATERBURY    AND 

ANSONIA. UNFORTUNATE    BUSINESS   CONNECTIONS,    ETC. 

Alter  saying  so  much  as  I  have  about  my  misfortunes  in  life,  I  must 
say  a  few  words  about  what  has  happened  and  what  I  have  been  through 
with  during  the  last  four  years. 

When  the  Jerome  Manufacturing  Company  failed,  every  dollar  that  I 
had  saved  out  of  a  long  lite  of  toil  and  labor  was  not  enough  to  support 
my  family  for  one  year.  It  was  hard  indeed  for  a  man  sixty-three  years 
old,  and  my  heart  sickened  at  the  prospect  ahead.  Perhaps  there  never 
was  a  man  that  wanted  more  than  I  did  to  be  in  business  and  be  somebody 
by  the  side  of  my  neighbors.  There  never  was  a  man  more  grieved  than 
I  was  when  I  had  to  give  up  those  splendid  factories  with  the  great 
facilities  they  had  over  all  others  in  the  world  for  the  manufacture  of 
clocks  both  good  and  cheap,  all  of  which  had  been  effected  through  my 
untiring  efforts.  Xo  one  but  myself  can  know  what  my  feelings  were  when 
I  was  compelled,  through  no  fault  of  my  own,  to  leave  that  splendid 


50  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

clustre  of  buildings  with  all  its  machinery,  and  its  thousands  of  good 
customers  all  over  this  country  and  Europe,  and  in  fact  the  whole  world, 
which  in  itself  was  a  fortune.  And  then  to  leave  that  beautiful  mansion 
at  the  head  of  the  New  Haven  bay,  which  I  had  almost  worshipped.  I 
say  to  leave  all  these  things  for  others,  with  that  spirit  and  pride  that  still 
remained  within  me,  and  at  my  time  of  life,  was  almost  too  much  for 
flesh  and  blood  to  bear.  What  could  have  been  the  feelings  of  my  family, 
and  my  large  circle  of  friends  and  acquaintances,  to  see  creditors  and 
officers  coming  to  our  house  every  day  with  their  pockets  full  of  attach 
ments  and  piles  of  them  on  the  table  every  night.  If  any  one  can  ever 
begin  to  know  my  feelings  at  this  time,  they  must  have  passed  through 
the  same  experience.  Yet  mortified  and  abused  as  I  was,  I  had  to  put 
up  with  it.  Thank  God,  I  have  never  been  the  means  of  such  trouble  for 
others.  I  had  to  move  to  Waterbury  in  my  old  age,  and  there  commence 
again  to  try  to  get  a  living.  I  moved  in  the  fall  of  1856,  and  as  bad  luck 
would  have  it,  rented  a  house  not  two  rods  from  a  large  church  with  a 
very  large  steeple  attached  to  it,  which  had  been  built  but  a  short  time 
before.  In  one  of  the  most  terrific  hurricanes  and  snow  storms  that  I  ever 
knew  in  my  life,  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  January  19th,  1857, 
this  large  steeple  fell  on  the  top  of  our  house  which  was  a  three  story 
brick  building  It  broke  through  the  roof  and  smashed  in  all  the  upper 
tier  of  rooms,  the  bricks  and  mortar  falling  to  the  lower  floor.  We  were 
in  the  second  story,  and  some  of  the  bricks  came  into  our  room,  breaking 
the  glass  and  furniture,  and  the  heaviest  part  of  the  whole  lay  directly 
on  our  house.  It  was  the  opinion  of  all  who  saw  the  ruins  that  we  did  not 
stand  one  chance  in  ten  thousand  of  not  being  killed  in  a  moment.  I 
heard  many  a  man  say  he  would  not  take  the  chances  that  we  had  for  all 
the  money  in  the  State.  One  man  in  the  other  part  of  the  house  was  so 
frightened  that  he  was  crazy  for  a  long  time.  Timbers  in  this  steeple, 
ten  inches  square,  broke  in  two  directly  over  my  bed  and  their  weight 
was  tremendous.  I  now  began  to  think  that  my  troubles  were  coming  in 
a  different  form;  but  it  seems  I  was  not  to  die  in  that  way.  The  business 
took  a  different  shape  in  the  spring,  and  I  moved  (another  task  of  moving!) 
to  Ansonia.  Here  I  lived  two  years,  but  very  unfortunately  happened  to 
get  in  with  the  worst  men  that  could  be  found  on  the  line  of  Rail-road 
between  Winsted  and  Bridgeport.  In  another  part  of  this  book  I  have 
spoken  of  them;  I  do  not  now  wish  to  think  of  them,  for  it  makes  me  sick 
to  see  their  names  on  paper.  I  had  worked  hard  ever  since  I  left  New 
Haven — one  year  at  Waterbury,  and  two  at  this  place  (Ansonia,) — but- 
got  not  one  dollar  for  the  whole  time.  I  was  robbed  of  all  the  money 
which  Mr.  Stevens,  (my  son-in-law,)  had  paid  me  for  the  use  of  my  trade 
mark  in  England,  for  the  years  1857-'58.  This  advantage  was  taken  of 
me,  because  I  could  collect  nothing  in  my  own  name. 


LIFE    OF    CHAUNCEY    JEROME.  51 

I  should  consider  my  history  incomplete,  unless  I  went  back  for  many 
years  to  speak  of  the  treatment  which  I  received  from  a  certain  man. 
I  shall  not  mention  his  name,  and  my  object  in  relating  these  circum 
stances  is  to  illustrate  a  principle  there  is  in  man,  and  to  caution  the  young 
men  to  be  careful  when  they  get  to  be  older  and  are  carrying  on  business, 
not  to  do  too  much  for  one  individual.  If  you  do,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten, 
he  will  hate  and  injure  you  in  the  end.  This  has  been  my  experience. 
Many  years  ago,  1  hired  two  men  from  a  neighboring  town  to  work  for 
me.  It  was  about  the  time  that  I  invented  the  Bronze  Looking-Glass 
Clock,  which  was,  at  that  time,  decidedly  the  best  kind  made.  After  a 
while  these  two  men  contrived  a  plan  to  get  up  a  company,  go  into 
another  town,  and  manufacture  the  same  kind  of  clock  This  company 
was  formed  about  six  months  before  I  found  it  out,  and  much  of  their 
time  was  spent  in  making  small  tools  and  clock-parts  to  take  with  them. 
This  was  done  when  they  were  at  work  for  me  on  wages  They  induced 
as  many  of  my  men  as  they  could  to  go  with  them,  and  took  some  of  them 
into  company.  When  they  had  finished  some  clocks,  they  went  round  to 
my  customers  and  under-sold  me  to  get  the  trade.  This  is  the  first 
chapter.  When  I  invented  the  thirty-hour  brass  clock  in  1838,  one  of 
these  men  had  returned  to  Bristol  again,  and  was  out  of  business;  but  he 
had  some  money  which  he  had  made  out  of  my  former  improvements.  I 
had  lost  a  great  deal  of  money  in  the  great  panic  of  1837.  After  I  had 
started  a  little  in  making  this  new  clock,  he  proposed  to  put  in  some 
money  and  become  interested  with  me,  and  as  I  was  in  want  of  funds  to 
carry  on  the  business,  I  told  him  that  if  he  would  put  in  three  thousand 
dollars,  he  should  have  a  share  of  the  profits.  I  went  on  with  him  one 
year,  but  got  sick  of  it  and  bought  him  out.  I  had  to  pay  six  thousand 
dollars  to  get  rid  of  him.  He  took  this  money,  went  to  a  neighboring 
town,  bought  an  old  wood  clock  factory,  fitted  it  up  for  making  the  same 
clock 'that  I  had  just  got  well  introduced,  and  induced  several  of  my 
workmen  to  go  with  him,  some  of  whom  he  took  in  company  with  him. 
As  soon  as  I  had  the  clock  business  well  a  going  in  England,  he  sent  over 
two  men  to  sell  the  same  patterns.  He  has  kept  this  up  ever  since,  and 
has  made  a  great  deal  of  money. 

After  the  failure  of  the  Jerome  Manufacturing  Company,  as  I  have 
already  stated,  I  went  to  Waterbury  to  assist  the  Benedict  &  Burnham 
Company.  After  I  had  been  there  six  or  eight  months,  and  had  got  the 
case-making  well  started,  (my  brother,  Noble  Jerome,  had  got  the  move 
ments  in  the  works  the  year  before,)  this  same  man  I  have  been  speaking 
about,  came  to  me  and  made  me  a  first-rate  offer  to  go  with  him  into  a 
town  a  short  distance  from  Waterbury,  and  make  clocks  there.  I  accepted 
his  offer,  but  should  not  have  done  so,  had  it  not  been  for  the  depressed 
condition  to  which  I  had  been  brought  by  previous  events.  I  accordingly 


52  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

moved  to  the  town  where  he  had  hired  a  factory.  He  was  carrying  on  the 
business  at  the  same  time  in  his  old  factory,  and  came  to  this  new  place 
about  twice  a  week.  My  work  was  in  the  third  story,  and  it  was  very- 
hard  for  an  old  man  to  go  up  and  down  a  dozen  times  a  day.  About  this 
time  I  obtained  a  patent  on  a  new  clock  case,  and  as  I  was  to  be  interested 
in  the  business,  I  let  the  Company  make  several  thousand  of  them.  \Ve 
could  make  forty  cents  more  on  each  clock  than  we  could  on  an  O-G. 
clock.  As  I  was  favorably  known  throughout  the  world  as  a  clock- 
maker,  this  Company  wanted  to  use  my  label  as  the  clocks  would  sell 
better  in  some  parts  of  the  country  than  with  his  label.  They  were  put 
upon  many  thousands.  Soon  after  we  commenced,  I  told  him  I  would 
make  out  a  writing  of  our  bargain  because  life  was  uncertain.  He  said 
that  was  all  right,  and  that  he  would  attend  to  it  soon.  As  he  always 
seemed  to  be  in  a  hurry  when  he  came,  I  wrote  one  and  sent  it  to  him, 
so  that  he  might  look  it  over  at  his  leisure  and  be  ready  to  sign  it  when  he 
came  down  again.  The  next  time  I  saw  him,  I  asked  him  if  the  writing 
was  not  as  we  agreed ;  he  said  he  supposed  it  was,  but  that  he  had  no  time 
to  look  it  over  and  sign  it  then,  but  would  do  so  when  he  had  time.  I 
paid  into  the  business  about  one  thousand  nine  hundred  dollars  in  small 
sums,  as  it  was  wanted  from  time  to  time,  and  worked  at  this  man  for 
eight  months  to  get  a  writing  from  him,  but  he  always  had  an  excuse. 
He  had  agreed  to  give  the  case-maker  a  share  of  the  profits  if  he  would 
make  the  cases  at  a  certain  price,  but  put  him  off  in  the  same  way.  \Ye 
both  became  satisfied  that  he  did  not  mean  to  do  as  he  had  agreed,  and  I 
therefore  left  him.  The  money  which  I  had  paid  in  was  what  J  had  re 
ceived  for  the  use  of  my  name  in  England.  I  had  the  privilege  of  paying 
it  in  as  it  was  wanted,  working  eight  months,  keeping  the  accounts  which 
I  did  evenings,  and  giving  this  man  a  home  at  my  house  whenever  he  was 
in  town.  All  of  this  which  I  had  clone,  he  refused  to  give  me  one  dollar 
for,  and  it  was  with  great  difficulty  that  I  got  my  money  back.  I  had  to 
put  it  into  another  man's  hands,  as  his  property,  to  recover  it.  This  man, 
probably,  had  two  objects  in  view  when  he  went  to  Waterbury  to  flatter 
me  away.  He  did  not  want  me  to  be  there  with  my  name  on  the  move 
ments  and  cases,  and  therefore  he  made  me  a  first-rate  offer.  I  had  been 
broken  up  in  all  my  business,  and  felt  very  anxious  to  be  doing  something 
again.  I  was  a  little  afraid  when  he  made  the  offer,  but  knew  that  he  had 
made  a  great  deal  of  money  out  of  my  improvements  and  was  very 
wealthy,  and  I  did  think  he  would  be  true  to  me,  knowing  as  he  did  my 
circumstances.  Look  at  this  miser,  with  not  a  child  in  the  world,  and 
no  one  on  earth  that  he  cares  one  straw  about,  and  yet  so  grasping!  Oh! 
what  will  the  poor  creature  do  in  eternity! 


LIFE    OF    CHAUNCEY    JEROME.  53 

CHAPTER  XII 

MORE    MISPLACED     CONFIDENCE. ANOTHER     UNFORTUNATE     PARTNERSHIP. 

Before  closing  the  history  of  the  many  trials  and  troubles  which  I  have 
experienced  during  my  life,  I  will  here  say  that  I  have  never  found,  in  all 
my  dealing  with  men  tor  more  than  forty  years,  such  an  untruthful  and 
dishonest  a  man  as  *  *  of  a  certain  town  in  Connecticut.  In  1858, 
he  induced  me  to  come  into  his  factory  to  carry  on  a  little  business.  My 
situation  was  such,  in  consequence  of  the  failure  of  the  Jerome  Manu 
facturing  Company,  that  I  could  do  nothing  in  my  own  name,  as  he  knew. 
I  had  a  little  money  that  had  been  paid  me  for  the  use  of  my  trade-mark 
in  England,  and  I  felt  very  anxious,  as  old  as  1  was,  to  make  a  little  money 
so  that  I  could  pay  some  small  debts  which  my  family  had  made  a  short 
time  before  the  company  failed.  I  had  also  two  children  who  looked  to 
me  for  some  help.  This  man  said  to  me,  "you  may  have  the  use  of  my 
factory  for  'so  much,'  and  you  may  carry  on  the  business  tor  one  year  in 
my  name,  for  so  'much.'  This  was  agreed  to  by  both  parties.  In  a  few 
days  he  came  to  me  and  said  that  he  had  been  talking  with  his  nephew 
about  having  the  business  carried  on  in  his  name  "&  Co.;"  *  being 

the  "Company"  and  he  was  to  keep  his  nephew  harmless,  as  he  had 
nothing  for  the  use  of  his  name.  The  nephew  came  into  the  factory  a 
short  time  after,  and  I  asked  him  if  he  had  agreed  to  what  *  *  *  had 
stated  to  me;  he  said  that  he  had,  and  that  I  could  go  on  with  the  business 
in  the  name  of  himself  &  Co.;  he  was  quite  sure  that  his  uncle  would  keep 
him  harmless.  1  went  on  with  the  business  in  this  name  from  May  to 
December,  both  of  those  men  knowing  all  the  while  just  as  much  about 
the  business  as  I  did,  and  they  never  said  but  that  it  was  all  right  as  we 
had  agreed.  I  paid  in  my  money  from  time  to  time  as  it  was  wanted. 
Late  hi  the  fall,  I  paid  in  at  one  time,  one  thousand  nine  hundred  dollars, 
through  a  firm  who  owed  me  that  amount,  and  who  gave  their  notes  to 
*  *  *  on  short  time,  which  notes  were  paid.  A  short  time  after  this, 
knowing  that  I  had  no  more  money  to  put  into  the  business,  he  un 
doubtedly  thought  it  time  to  do  what  he  had  intended  to  do  at  a  suitable 
time  from  the  beginning.  One  day  when  I  was  unwell  and  confined  to  the 
house,  a  man  who  had  a  claim  against  the  company,  called  on  H  *  to 
make  a  settlement.  Before  this  time  he  had  made  two  payments  on  this 
same  account,  but  he  now  told  this  man  that  there  never  had  been  such  a 
company,  and  that  he  would  never  pay  it — while  at  the  same  time,  he  had 
the  same  property  which  the  man  offered  to  take  back  but  which  he  had 

refused  to  give  up,  and  said  that  I  had  no  right  to  use  the  name  of & 

Co.  This  was  after  he  had  been  using  the  name  for  me  in  drafts  and 
notes,  and  all  other  business  transactions,  for  more  than  eight  months. 


54  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

He  said  that  he  would  have  me  arrested  for  fraud  and  put  in  the  State 
Prison.  This  treatment  was  rather  hard  towards  a  man  who  had  never 
before  been  accused  of  dishonesty,  and  who  had  done  business  on  a  large 
scale  with  thousands  of  men  for  more  than  forty  years.  He  at  one  time 
requested  me  to  borrow  a  note  for  him  from  one  of  my  friends,  which  I 
did,  and  which  he  paid  promptly  when  due.  He  did  this,  as  I  now  suppose, 
because  the  business  was  not  in  as  good  shape  for  him  as  it  might  be  in 
another  three  months;  so  he  wished  me  to  get  the  favor  renewed,  which  I 
did.  When  it  became  due,  he  denied  that  it  was  a  borrowed  note,  de 
clared  that  I  was  owing  him,  and  had  handed  this  note  to  him  as  one  that 
was  good  and  would  be  paid.  One  of  his  best  friends  has  since  told  me 
that  there  was  more  honor  among  horse-thieves  than  this  man  had  shown 
towards  me.  I  put  into  the  business  between  four  and  five  thousand 
dollars,  worked  hard  almost  a  year,  and  have  received  about  five  hundred 
dollars  *  *  *  is  trying  to  scare  me  by  threatening  to  sue  me  for  perjury; 
so  that  if  he  could  make  me  fool  enough  to  pay  the  debts  of—  — &  Co., 
he  would  have  just  so  much  more  to  put  into  his  own  pocket.  When  he 
can  get  a  grand  jury  to  find  a  true  bill  against  me  for  fraud  or  perjury,  I 
will  promise  to  go  to  \Vethersfield  and  stay  there  the  remainder  of  my  life, 
without  any  further  trial.  After  all  that  I  have  said,  1  think  of  him  just 
as  all  his  neighbors  do;  for  they  have  told  me  that  it  was  the  common  talk 
among  them,  when  I  first  went  into  his  factory,  that  he  would  in  some 
way  cheat  me  out  of  every  dollar  that  I  put  into  his  hands.  It  would 
take  just  about  as  much  evidence  to  prove  that  young  crows  would  be 
black  when  their  feathers  are  grown,  as  it  would  to  satisfy  the  com 
munity  that  these  statements  are  true,  especially  where  he  is  known. 
For  knavery,  untruthfulness,  and  wickedness,  I  have  never  seen  any 
thing,  in  all  my  business  experience  of  forty  years,  that  will  compare 
with  this.  He  would  not  have  taken  such  a  course  with  me  once,  but  he 
took  advantage  of  my  age  and  misfortunes  to  commit  these  Irauds, 
thinking  that  I  could  not  defend  myself,  and  that  he  could  defraud  and 
crush  me. 

I  had  paid  every  dollar  of  my  money  into  this  business  which  I  had  at 
that  time,  and  had  nothing  to  live  on  through  the  winter.  But  John 
Woodruff  in  his  kindness,  raised  money  enough  for  me  to  live  on  through 
the  winter,  and  the  following  spring  I  moved  to  New  Haven. 


LIFE  OF  CHAUNCEY  JEROME. 

CHAPTER  XIII 

THE     WOOSTER     PLACE     CHURCH. GROWTH     OF     THE     DIFFERENT     DENOMI 
NATIONS   IN   NEW   HAVEN. 

In  order  to  have  my  history  complete  I  must  give  my  reason  for  build 
ing  the  Wooster  Place  Church,  as  my  motives  have  been  misconstrued  by 
many  persons,  I  will  make  a  short  statement  of  what  I  know  to  be  true. 
It  is  well  known  that  with  the  exception  of  one,  all  the  Congregational 
churches  in  New  Haven,  were  located  west  of  the  centre  of  the  city.  The 
majority  of  the  inhabitants  lived  in  the  eastern  section.  Meeting  after 
meeting  was  called  by  the  different  churches  to  consider  the  importance 
of  building  a  church  in  the  eastern  part.  It  was  strongly  advocated  by 
the  ministers  and  many  others,  that  this  part  of  the  city  was  rapidly 
rilling  up,  a  great  deal  of  manufacturing  was  carried  on  there,  and  the 
strangers  who  were  constantly  coming  in  would  fall  into  other  denom 
inations.  I  heard  their  speeches  advocating  this  course  with  great 
pleasure,  as  I  lived  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  city,  had  a  long  distance  to 
go  to  attend  church,  and  nearly  all  the  workmen  in  my  employ  lived 
in  the  same  section.  The  church  which  I  have  mentioned  as  the  only 
one  located  east  of  the  centre,  was  in  a  very  prosperous  condition.  By 
the  talent,  popularity  and  piety  of  its  minister,  as  his  church  and  congre 
gation  believed,  he  had  filled  the  church  to  overflowing.  There  were  no 
slips  to  be  bought  in  that  church.  We  heard  this  minister  say  that  he 
could  spare  thirty  families  from  his  congregation  to  build  up  a  new  church. 
In  view  of  all  the  facts,  I  started  a  subscription  paper,  in  as  good  faith 
as  I  ever  did  anything  in  my  life,  for  the  raising  of  funds  to  build  an 
edifice.  The  subscription  was  headed  by  myself  with  five  thousand  dollars 
and  many  large  sums  were  added  to  it.  A  number  of  wealthy  men  lived 
near/the  contemplated  place  of  building  the  new  church,  who  belonged  to 
other  churches.  It  was  supposed,  by  what  their  ministers  had  said  in 
public  and  in  private,  that  they  would  use  their  influence  in  advancing 
this  good  work,  and  to  have  some  of  their  members  join  in  it;  but  for  some 
reason  they  changed  their  minds.  I  heard  that  the  minister  of  the  church 
located  in  the  eastern  section  (which  I  mentioned  before,)  had  got  up  a 
subscription  paper  to  raise  ten  or  twelve  thousand  dollars  to  beautify  the 
front  of  his  church,  raise  a  higher  steeple,  and  make  some  other  altera 
tions  that  he  thought  important.  I  was  told  that  he  called  on  the  men 
who  lived  in  the  locality  where  we  proposed  erecting  the  new  church, 
with  his  subscription,  and  that  they  subscribed  to  carry  out  his  plans. 
Some  of  those  who  had  subscribed  to  build  the  new  church,  after  he  had 
made  these  calls,  wrote  me  that  they  wished  their  names  crossed  off  from 
my  paper — Others  came  and  told  me  the  same  thing,  and  wished  their 


56  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

names  erased.  I  began  at  this  time  to  understand  that  there  were  in 
fluences  working  against  our  enterprise  and  that  this  way  of  building  a 
church  must  be  given  up.  I  however,  went  forward  myself,  as  is  very 
well  known,  and  built  a  church  second  to  none  in  New  England.  I 
should  have  built  one  that  would  not  have  cost  one  half  of  the  money, 
had  I  acted  on  my  own  judgement,  but  I  was  influenced  by  a  few  others 
differently.  I  paid  more  than  twenty  thousand  dollars  out  of  my  own 
pocket  into  this  church. 

Public  opinion  in  the  community  was,  that  if  the  several  ministers  had 
given  their  influence  in  favor  of  this  matter,  a  church  would  have  been 
built  by  subscription.  They  could  very  easily  have  influenced  their 
friends  in  that  part  of  the  city  to  unite  in  this  enterprise  without  detriment 
to  their  own  congregation.  Had  this  course  been  taken,  it  is  evident 
that  by  this  time  it  would  have  been  a  large  and  prosperous  church. 

A  correspondent  of  the  Independent  in  writing  upon  the  growth  of 
Congregationalism,  in  New  Haven,  had  a  great  deal  to  say  about  the 
Wooster  Place  church — calling  the  man  that  built  it,  "a  sagacious 
mechanic,  who  built  it  on  speculation  etc."  Yet;  added  "if  they  had 
called  a  young  man  for  its  Pastor  from  New  England,  it  might  have 
succeeded  after  all." 

It  is  well  known  that  the  Congregational  denomination  has  made  but 
very  small  advancement  compared  with  others  for  the  last  twenty  years. 
It  is  supposed  that  the  inhabitants  of  New  Haven  have  doubled  in  number 
during  that  time;  but  only  one  small  Mission  church  has  been  added  to 
the  Congregational  churches.  Four  Episcopal  churches  have  been  built, 
and  filled  with  worshipers,  many  of  whom  formerly  belonged  to  Congre 
gational  families.  The  Methodists  have  built  two  large  churches,  and 
more  than  trebled  in  number.  The  Baptists  have  more  than  doubled, 
and  now  own  and  occupy  the  YVooster  Place  church.  And  to  have  kept 
pace  with  the  others,  the  Congregational  denomination  should  now  have 
as  main"  as  three  more  large  churches. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

NEW       HAVEN       AS       A       BUSJNESS       PLACE. GROWTH EXTENSIVE       MANU 
FACTORIES,   ETC. 

Eor  man}'  years  I  have  extensively  advertised  throughout  every  part 
of  the  civilized  world,  and  in  the  most  conspicuous  places,  such  a  city  as 
New  Haven  Connecticut,  U.  S.  A.,  and  its  name  is  hourly  brought  to 
notice  wherever  American  clocks  are  used,  and  I  know  of  no  more  con 
spicuous  or  prominent  place  than  the  dial  of  a  clock  for  this  purpose. 


LIFE  OF  CHAUNCEY  JEROME.  57 

More  of  these  clocks  have  been  manufactured  in  this  city  for  the  past 
sixteen  years  than  any  other  one  place  in  this  country,  and  the  company 
now  manufacturing,  turn  out  seven  hundred  daily. 

1  now  propose  to  give  a  brief  description  of  New  Haven  and  its  in 
habitants  in  the  words  of  a  business  man  who  loves  the  town.  New  Haven, 
is  to-day  a  city  of  more  than  forty  thousand  inhabitants,  remarkable  as 
the  New  Englanders  generally  are  for  their  ingenuity,  industry,  shrewd 
practical  good  sense,  and  their  large  aggregate  wealth;  and  with  forty 
thousand  such  people  it  is  not  strange  that  New  Haven  is  now  growing 
like  a  city  in  the  west.  It  was  settled  in  1638,  and  incorporated  as  a  city 
in  1784.  Its  population  in  1830,  was  less  than  eleven  thousand,  and  in 
1840,  but  little  more  than  fourteen  thousand,  its  increase  from  1840  to 
1850,  was  about  eight  thousand,  and  from  1850  to  1860,  the  population 
has  nearly  doubled.  The  assessed  value  of  property  in  1830,  amounted  to 
about  two  and  a  half  millions.  The  amount  at  the  present  time  is  esti 
mated  at  over  twenty  seven  millions.  New  Haven  is  situated  at  the 
head  of  a  fine  bay,  four  miles  from  Long  Island  Sound,  and  seventy-six 
miles  from  New  York,  on  the  direct  line  of  Rail-road,  and  great  thorough 
fare  between  that  city  and  Boston,  and  can  be  reached  in  three  hours  by 
Rail-road  and  about  five  by  \vater  from  New  York.  New  Haven  has  long 
been  known  as  the  city  of  Elms,  and  it  far  surpasses  any  other  city  in 
America  in  the  number  and  beauty  of  these  noble  elm  trees  which  shade 
and  adorn  its  streets  and  public  squares.  It  is  a  place  of  large  manu 
facturing  interests,  the  persevering  genius  and  enterprise  of  its  people 
having  made  New  Haven  in  a  variety  of  ways,  prominent  in  industrial 
pursuits.  Mr.  Whitney,  the  inventor  of  the  Cotton  Gin,  Mr.  Goodyear 
ot  india  rubber  notoriety,  and  many  other  great  and  good  men  who  by 
their  ingenuity  and  perseverance  have  added  millions  to  the  wealth  of 
mankind,  were  citizens  of  New  Haven.  Nearly  every  kind  of  manu 
factured  article  known  in  the  market,  can  here  be  found  and  bought 
direct  from  the  manufactory — such  as  carriages  and  all  kind  of  carriage 
goods,  firearms,  shirts,  locks,  furniture,  clothing,  shoes,  hardware,  iron 
castings,  claguerrotype-cases,  machinery,  plated  goods,  &c.,  &c. 

The  manufacture  of  carriages  is  here  carried  on,  on  a  grand  scale,  and 
its  yearly  productions  are  probably  larger  than  of  any  other  city  in  the 
Union.  There  are  more  than  sixty  establishments  in  full  operation  at 
the  present  time,  many  of  them  of  great  extent  and  completeness,  and 
turn  out  work  justly  celebrated  for  its  beauty  and  substantial  value 
wherever  they  are  known.  I  live  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  largest 
carriage  manufactury  in  the  wTorld,  \vhich  turns  out  a  finished  carriage 
every  hour;  much  of  the  work  being  done  by  machinery  and  systematized 
in  much  the  same  manner  as  the  clock-making.  American  carriages  are 
last  following  American  clocks  to  foreign  countries,  to  the  West  Indies, 


58  AMERICAN    CLOCK    MAKING. 

Australia  and  the  Sandwich  Islands,  Mexico  and  South  America,  and  I 
believe  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  they  will  be  exported  to  Europe  in 
large  quantities,  and  the  present  prospect  seems  far  more  favorable  for 
them  than  it  did  for  me  when  I  introduced  my  first  cargo  of  clocks  into 
England. 

When  I  first  saw  this  city  in  1812,  its  population  was  less  than  five 
thousand,  and  it  looked  to  me  like  a  country  town.  I  wandered  about 
the  streets  early  one  morning  with  a  bundle  of  clothes  and  some  bread 
and  cheese  in  my  hands  little  dreaming  that  I  should  live  to  see  so  great 
a  change,  or  that  it  ever  would  be  my  home.  I  remember  seeing  the 
loads  of  wood  and  chips  for  family  use  lying  in  front  of  the  houses,  and 
acres  of  land  then  in  cornfields  and  valued  at  a  small  sum,  are  now  covered 
with  fine  buildings  and  stores  and  factories  in  about  the  heart  of  the  city. 

When  I  moved  my  case  making  business  to  New  Haven,  the  project 
was  ridiculed  by  other  clock-makers,  of  going  to  a  city  to  manufacture  by 
steam  power,  and  yet  it  seems  to  have  been  the  commencement  of  manu 
facturers  in  the  country,  coming  to  New  Haven  to  carry  on  their  business. 
Numbers  came  to  me  to  get  my  opinion  and  learn  the  advantages  it  had 
over  manufacturing  in  the  country,  which  I  always  informed  them  in  a 
heavy  business  was  very  great,  the  item  of  transportation  alone  over 
balancing  the  difference  between  water  and  steam  power.  The  facilities 
for  procuring  stock  and  of  shipping,  being  also  an  important  item.  Not 
one  of  the  good  citizens  will  deny  that  this  great  business  of  clock-making 
which  I  first  brought  to  New  Haven  has  been  of  immense  advantage  and 
of  great  importance  to  the  city.  Through  its  agency  millions  of  money 
has  been  brought  here,  adding  materially  to  the  general  prosperity  and 
wealth,  besides  bringing  it  into  notice  wherever  its  productions  are  sent. 
I  have  been  told  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  eastern  world  that  attracts 
the  attention  of  the  inhabitants  like  a  Yankee  clock.  It  has  this  moment 
come  into  my  mind  of  several  years  ago  giving  a  dozen  brass  clocks  to  a 
missionary  at  Jerusalem;  they  were  shipped  from  London  to  Alexandria 
in  Egypt,  from  there  to  Joppa,  and  thence  about  fort}-  miles  on  the  backs 
of  Camels  to  Jerusalem,  where  they  arrived  safe  to  the  great  joy  of  the 
missionary  and  others  interested,  and  attracted  a  great  deal  of  attention 
and  admiration.  I  also  sent  my  clocks  to  China,  and  two  men  to  introduce 
them  more  than  twenty  years  ago. 

I  will  here  say  what  I  truly  believe  as  to  the  future  of  this  business; 
there  is  no  place  on  the  earth  where  it  can  be  started  and  compete  with 
New  Haven,  there  are  no  other  factories  where  they  can  possibly  be  made 
so  cheap.  I  have  heard  men  ask  the  question,  "why  can't  clocks  be  made 
in  Europe  on  such  a  scale,  where  labor  is  so  cheap?"  If  a  company  could 
in  any  part  of  the  old  world  get  their  labor  ten  years  for  nothing,  I  do 


LIFE    OF    CHAUNCEY    JEROME.  59 

not  believe  they  could  compete  with  the  Yankees  in  this  business.  They 
can  be  made  in  New  Haven  and  sent  into  any  part  of  the  world  for  more 
than  a  hundred  years  to  come  for  less  than  one  half  of  what  they  could  be 
made  for  in  any  part  of  the  old  world.  I  was  many  years  in  systematizing 
this  business,  and  these  things  I  know  to  be  facts,  though  it  might  appear 
as  strong  language.  No  man  has  ever  lived  that  has  given  so  much  time 
and  attention  to  this  subject  as  myself.  For  more  than  fifty  years,  by 
day  and  by  night,  clocks  have  been  uppermost  in  my  mind.  The  ticking 
of  a  clock  is  music  to  me,  and  although  many  of  my  experiences  as  a 
business  man  have  been  trying  and  bitter,  I  have  the  satisfaction  of 
knowing  that  I  have  lived  the  life  of  an  honest  man,  and  have  been  of 
some  use  to  my  fellow  men. 


